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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

She was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast 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 lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees