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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

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 walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

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