You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ 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 positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought 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. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
