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You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my 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 persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at 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 recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

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