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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged 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 good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees