You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
