You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing 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 was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio the group while attending the Brit School. “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 automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
