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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees