You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
