You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
