You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, 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 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
