You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness 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, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
