You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. 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 never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
