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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, birth 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 candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” 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. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

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