You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure 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 thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
