You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group 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 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
