You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought 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 fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs 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, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
