You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following 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 fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
