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You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.

The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. 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 jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees