You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious 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 simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted 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 performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
