You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re 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 biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
