You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
