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You couldn’t make it up, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. 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.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure 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 then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. 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 positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem 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 intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”

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