You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling 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 planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group 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 car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
