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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “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.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery 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 thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

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