🔗 Share this article

You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish 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 four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees