You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted 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 positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. 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 rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
