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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

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

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her youth, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals 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 girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees