🔗 Share this article

You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear 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, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees