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You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.

“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, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees