You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. 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 describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
