You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a 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 couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
