You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because 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.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
