You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “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 car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
