You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
