You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
