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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘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 rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group the group while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees