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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored 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 spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, 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. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees