‘It has pushed me to live more fully’: Jessie J on her health battle, career returns and cracking China

You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor 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 fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus 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 log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful 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 terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). 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 was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

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