You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees