You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain 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, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘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 reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
