You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
