You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was chosen 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 rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
