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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies 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 smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

She was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees