You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 hate being put 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 bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “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 automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
