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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. 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?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She recalls to her youth, already beginning featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees