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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees