You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, 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 Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer 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 she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater 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 fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “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 was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
