You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
