You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘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 reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. 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 rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
