You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
