You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked 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 lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
