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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. 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 years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees