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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in 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 press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call 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, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

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

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees