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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

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