You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. 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 a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just marched 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 lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
