You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. 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 [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. 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. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
