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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. 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 often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “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 fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees