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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

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

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down 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 surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

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