You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus 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 log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
