You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
