You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking 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’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted 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 brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
