‘It has made me live life more’: Jessica Cornish on cancer, comebacks and conquering the Chinese market

You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, 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 starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees