You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus 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 jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
