You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ 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 Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
