You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish 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 wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake 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 serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
