You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
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. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
