You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought 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 terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because 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.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
