You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish 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 were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). 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 drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
