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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. 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 launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees