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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was 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 dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees