You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up 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 a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep 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 car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
