You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! 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.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
