You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘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 wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis 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 highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
