You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
