You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” 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’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial 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 fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
