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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” 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.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio the group while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

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