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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career 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 cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees