You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was 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 she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! 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 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 attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
