You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” 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.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently 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 remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
