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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees