🔗 Share this article

You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees