You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake 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 doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, 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 year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
