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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees