You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! 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
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
