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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged 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 good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees