You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
