You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted 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 believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
