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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness 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 highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing 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 Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the trio the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

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