You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
