You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
