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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure 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 heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “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 larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees