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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style 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, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘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 says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

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