You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected 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 rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
