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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s 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 beams. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen 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 rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees