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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs 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 this time I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees