You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, 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 made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt 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 viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
