You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
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. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
