🔗 Share this article

You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I 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 hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was selected 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 dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees