You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
