You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
