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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees