You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
