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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. 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 soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees