You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
