Jessie J is opening up about her breast cancer journey.
The 37-year-old British pop star brought her No Secret Tour to New York City’s Irving Plaza on Wednesday, January 28, and opened up about being diagnosed with breast cancer and later having a mastectomy.
“Last year was a year of perspective for me. It was a year of picking my battles,” said Jessie, who revealed her breast cancer diagnosis during the release of her latest album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, in June 2025.
“Getting breast cancer 10 days before[the release of my first new album in years]was honestly the most disrespectful thing that ever happened to my breasts,” she joked. “is that so?”
After the audience laughed a little, the “Domino” singer added, “When I start making boob cancer jokes, no one knows how to react.”
“It was a strange time,” Jessie (real name Jessica Cornish) explained. “That was the funniest thing. It was like Jessica and Jessie J had to embrace each other. And Jessica was through Jessie J, and Jessie J was through Jessica. I mean as parents, as performers, as friends, as sisters, as daughters, as mothers. It was like everything came together for them.” (She also has son Skye, 2, with boyfriend Chanan Safir Coleman.)
“It wasn’t, ‘This is what I’m going to be.’ It was, ‘This is who I am.’ It was a really interesting change of perspective for me and I embraced it wholeheartedly. And to be honest, people just say, “Are you okay now?” And I’m like, “I’m alive.” I’m very well,” she said.
Jessie joked about having “unstable breasts” after her mastectomy. “It’s okay, I can deal with it,” she said. “It doesn’t matter right now…but I can sing, so it’s okay.”
She then turned her attention to the crowd who might be going through a similar experience. “For everyone here who has been through cancer, is going through cancer, or is going to go through cancer, hang in there. Just hang in there,” she advised.
Dave Bennett/Getty
“Eat well, feel good, read well, be in a good environment. Honestly, a positive mind heals the body from the inside out. It helps, it doesn’t heal, it helps. It supports,” Jesse added. “And I’m sorry. It really sucks to suddenly get sick out of nowhere in any way, shape or form.”
At the New York stop of the No Secret Tour, the 1,000-capacity venue felt like a very intimate room as Jesse told personal stories, shared personal connections with the crowd, and performed songs old and new, from 2012’s “Price Tag” to 2025’s “Living My Best Life.”
