You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
