You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving 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 awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
