You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. 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 fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
