You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus 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 fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
