You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
