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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture biker chic 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, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain 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 day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage 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 tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees