You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my 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 the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
