You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; 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 suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, 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 voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
