You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly 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 July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ 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, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
