You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, 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 late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe 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, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive 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 remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
