You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the 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 performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
