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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast 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 irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees