You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold 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. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
