You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
