🔗 Share this article

You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. 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 ideal. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees