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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought 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. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as 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 notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already beginning performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in 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 car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

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