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You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released 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 she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

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, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. 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 hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at 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 automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees