You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ 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 said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial 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. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
