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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees