You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; 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 suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting 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, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. 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 ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
