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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, 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. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

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