You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony 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 insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, 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. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
