You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known 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 faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
