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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees