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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected 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 lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees