🔗 Share this article

You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “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. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (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 rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees