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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. 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 fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

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 then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast 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 observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). 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 rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees