You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, 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 found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt 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 dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “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 car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
