You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her 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 conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
