🔗 Share this article

You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 found the surgery frightening and surreal. “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 bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees