You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a 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 throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
