You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
