You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “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 scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
