You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat 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 her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. 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. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought 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 considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “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 gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
