You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, irreverent 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. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. 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 flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
