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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July 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 inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees