You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, 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. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while studying at the performing arts 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 automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
