You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers 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 doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
