You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
