You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. 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 thriving, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
