You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces 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 irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
