You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
