You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio the group while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
