You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises 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 chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
