You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
