You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
