You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up 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 facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I 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 viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” 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. 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 never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
