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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘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 informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees