You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, 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 “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put 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 answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “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 aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
