‘It has pushed me to live more fully’: Jessie J on her health battle, career returns and conquering the Chinese market

You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees