You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy 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 diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly 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.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
