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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

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