You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ 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 reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
