You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
