You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging 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 surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
