You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
