You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (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 tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
