🔗 Share this article

You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was planning an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before 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 assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees