You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, 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 major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
