You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
