You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “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 respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
