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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast 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 lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

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