You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
