You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
