You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer 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, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in 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 voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
