🔗 Share this article

You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her comeback record 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, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts 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 was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees