You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom 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’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched 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 blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
