You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, 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 coping with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
