You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
