You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
