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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

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

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees