You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
