You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record 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 ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
