You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “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’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘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.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, 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 jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
