You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if 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 beams. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor 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 tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘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?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately 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.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
