🔗 Share this article

You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! 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.”

Past Medical Issues

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees