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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, 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 existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees