‘It has made me live life more’: Jessie J on her health battle, comebacks and cracking China

You can’t imagine it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

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

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees