‘It has made me live life more’: Jessie J on cancer, career returns and cracking China

You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. 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 found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

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