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You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.

The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees