You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in 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 doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘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 goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
