You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered 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 recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees