You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready 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; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. 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! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
