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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in a musical (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 rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees