You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because 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.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected 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 fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “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 collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
