You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel 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 post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition 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 being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at 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 car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
