You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, 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 rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘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, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “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 become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. 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 year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
