You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while 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 “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending 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 collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
