You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. 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 hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically 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
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
