You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
