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You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold 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 frequently joke about the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater 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 tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees