You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk 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 informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. 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 not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
