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You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘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 wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (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 rapid pulse 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 fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees