You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight 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 moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
