You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, 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 academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
