You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored 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 singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
