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You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, 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 giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; 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 replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen 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 irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees