You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
