You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. 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.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
