You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! 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. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
