You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band 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 ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
