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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.

The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “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 larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees