You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
