You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer 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 ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. 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 positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group 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 planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
