You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after 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 persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
