You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
