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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. 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 dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees