You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “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, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
