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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees