You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing 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 facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, 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 going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
