You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘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 call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
