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You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘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.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

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 medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

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