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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

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

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her youth, already beginning performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record 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 year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees