You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
