You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
