You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged 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 goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! 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
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, 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 the production (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 lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. 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 long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
