You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ 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, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, 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 perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
