You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates 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 detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically 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.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
