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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Personal Battles and News

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness 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 contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees