You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, 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 (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! 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.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
