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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees