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You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. 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 a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me 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 positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while attending 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 voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees