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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought 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. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees