You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, 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 going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
