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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! 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. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending 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 automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees