You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have 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 transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about 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 IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
