You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘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 contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. 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 debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. 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! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have 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 going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the performing arts school. “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 collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
