You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
