You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an appearance 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 responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, 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 London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with 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 going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
