You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, 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 said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
