You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning performing in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
