You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness 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 entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
