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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

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