You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
