You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s 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 grins. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call 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, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down 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 lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
