‘It has pushed me to live more fully’: Jessie J on cancer, comebacks and cracking China

You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great 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 found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees