You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
