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You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free 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 fine, 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 biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees