You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
