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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees