You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies 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 grins. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer 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 was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
