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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at 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 recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

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