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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.

The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“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 thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

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

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She takes me back to her youth, already beginning featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees