You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought 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 found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut 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 Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
