You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call 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 a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful 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 hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces 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 diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio the group while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
