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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a 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 larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees