You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping 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 “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
