You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. 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 long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
