You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
