You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
