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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put 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, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, 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 found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “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 girl group the group while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees