You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports 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.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
