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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

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

We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees