You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do 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 contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer 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 contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in 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 automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
