You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ 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 good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six 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 the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
