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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Past Medical Issues

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”

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