You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. 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 twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
