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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage 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 quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees