You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “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.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, 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 serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
