You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ 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 explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have 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 IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
