You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
