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You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; 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 said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees