You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, 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 difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
