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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat 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 the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

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