You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“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 was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, 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. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ 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 recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit 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 automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
