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You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s 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. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

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

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage 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 lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees