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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist 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 had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees