You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
