You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. 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 speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. 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. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “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 gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
