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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

She 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 said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees