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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. 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. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees