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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. 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, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, 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 enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. 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 year.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees