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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. 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.”

Previous Struggles

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees