You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away 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 assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
