You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. 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, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial 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 walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
