You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen 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 dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
