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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love 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 diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, 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 (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees