Singer Jessie J has been diagnosed with “early breast cancer”.
The Price Tag singer, whose real name is Jessica Cornish, said in a video posted to Instagram that she has recently spent a lot of time “in and out of tests”.
She said she will “disappear for a bit” after performing at Capital Radio’s Summertime Ball later this month to have surgery.
“I was diagnosed with early breast cancer,” the 37-year-old said during the video.
“Cancer sucks in any form, but I’m holding on to the word ‘early’.
“It’s a very dramatic way to get a boob job. I am going to disappear for a bit after Summertime Ball to have my surgery, and I will come back with massive tits and more music.”
Image: Jessie J at the BAFTA awards earlier this year. Pic: PA
‘I need a hug’
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in the UK.
The singer said sharing her diagnosis publicly has helped her process the news and show solidarity with others going through a similar experience.
“I just wanted to be open and share it,” she said.
“One, because, selfishly, I do not talk about it enough. I’m not processing it because I’m working so hard.
“I also know how much sharing in the past has helped me with other people giving me their love and support and also their own stories. I’m an open book.
“It breaks my heart that so many people are going through so much similar and worse – that’s the bit that kills me.”
She continued: “The timing of it has been mad but also beautiful and given me this incredible perspective in this time.
“But honestly I need to process it and talk about it and, I need a hug. You have loved me through all my good and hard times. And I don’t want this to be any different.”
‘I’m here for you’
Messages of support from celebrities flooded the comments section under the singer’s post.
Former Little Mix singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock wrote: “Sending you so much love.”
Fellow singer Rita Ora said: “You’re literally my favourite person and I’m praying for you, you’ve got this. My mother had it and I know the surgery and any treatment on this matter is mentally tough, so I’m here for you.”
London-born singer Jessie J welcomed her son, Sky Safir Cornish Colman, in 2023, having miscarried in November 2021.
She has battled with ill health throughout her life, having been diagnosed with a heart condition aged eight, suffering a minor stroke aged 18 and having briefly gone deaf in 2020.
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.