You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put 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, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s 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. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘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, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. 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. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (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 rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
