You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! 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 OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a 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 throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
