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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees