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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees