You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis 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, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
Maya Chen is a seasoned tech journalist and software developer with over a decade of experience in digital innovation and cybersecurity.
