You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful 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 terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? 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 childhood, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
