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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, 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! 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.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, 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 beginning performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees