You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
