You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band the group while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
