You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
