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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record 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, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The artist, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album 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 thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

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

Previous Struggles

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees