You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly 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 the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
