🔗 Share this article

You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, 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 difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees