You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
