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You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“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, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees