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You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “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.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (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 fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees