You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
