You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
