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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees