You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending 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 collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
