You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. 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. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep 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 collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
