You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
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 roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
