You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. 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?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
