Alex Scott’s rumoured new girlfriend Jess Glynne says ‘who cares if I’m gay or straight?’ as she opens up about how she finally found happiness

JESS GLYNNE, queen of the dancefloor banger, tells Sylvia Patterson how love, loss and a stint in LA transformed both her career and life

I was 18!’ Wearing a black Maison Margiela T-shirt beneath a faux-leather jacket, her copper hair tamed back into a ponytail, Jess Glynne looks around The Old White Lion in East Finchley. 

A large coaching inn-style pub, lit by candle-effect lamps, it was one of many teenage haunts across North London where she grew up. She was forever ‘out ’n’ about, drinking – it was wild!’, carousing the Camden pubs where The Libertines and Amy Winehouse spearheaded the vibrant music scene of the early noughties. 

Glynne, now 34, sinks into an armchair. A silver choker glitters around her neck. On the table she places a lip gloss, an iPhone and her car keys, attached to a Porsche keyring. She drives a Porsche? Only now do I remember I’m with a phenomenally successful pop star, current record holder for the most number one singles (seven) from a British solo female artist in UK history. But then, ‘It’s just a keyring!’ she laughs, with an accent as ‘Norf London’ as Adele’s. ‘I’ve got a little Fiat. Electric.’  

Jess Glynne grew up with her Jewish family in the 1990s, in the desirable North London enclave of Muswell Hill. Her dad, an estate agent, and mum (who worked in A&R at Atlantic Records) were both music obsessives, their home life soundtracked by David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell… 

‘They’d always have people over,’ Glynne recalls. ‘Dad cooking, Aretha blaring out.’ Her own childhood musical heroes, whose hits she’d record herself singing to, were Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill. By 2007, when Glynne was 18, she’d been a Winehouse devotee for years; when Frank, the singer’s debut album, came out on Glynne’s 14th birthday, 20 October 2003, her parents bought her the CD. 

Post-school she drifted, working in several jobs – LA Fitness, Topman, a music management company – before spending a ‘party year’ raving in Ibiza, Greece and London. ‘I drank a lot,’ she admits. ‘It wasn’t healthy. I was lost in myself.’ Her mum stepped in with an intervention. ‘She was, “You’re going to see someone, Jess, a therapist, because you’re not talking to me and you’re not helping yourself”.’ It was the late 2000s, years into headlines on Winehouse’s struggles. ‘That had an impact,’ says Glynne. ‘And when she passed – I was devastated. The way it happened. Like, “The media have taken her from us.” I thought, “I never want that to be me”.’ 

She found therapy ‘amazing, it changed my life’, emerged with a new-found focus and enrolled on a 12-month course at London’s British Academy of New Music. There she met songwriting collaborator Jin Jin (Janée Bennett) and, through years of hard graft and demos, chart hits followed, making Glynne a major label star. 

Bodysuit, Juana Martín

Now she is once again reinventing herself. From 2013 to 2019, she was the flame-haired doyen of the dancefloor hit, famed for her smoky, powerhouse vocals and strident personality. She was seemingly always number one: featured vocalist on Clean Bandit’s ‘Rather Be’ in 2013 (the soundtrack for M&S and Coca-Cola ads); and with the immortal ‘Hold My Hand’ from her debut album, I Cry When I Laugh (2015) – the song licensed by Jet2 Holidays for its beach getaway TV ads from 2015 to this day. 

In 2018, Glynne’s second album, Always in Between, hit number one. She’s accumulated over four billion album streams worldwide, won three Ivor Novellos, been nominated for nine Brit awards and in 2019 was listed in Forbes magazine’s ‘Most Influential People Under 30’. Then, in late 2019, after seven years on the punishing pop treadmill, she had a creative and existential crisis. 

‘I was tired – uninspired,’ she says, sipping a still water and munching sea-salt crisps. After losing most of 2020 as Covid shut down the industry, early sessions for her third album were blighted by ‘conflict’ with management and label. She wanted her sound to evolve; her team wanted more of her signature hits. 

In early 2022 she flew to LA alone, living out of a suitcase in a hotel and hooking herself up with some of the biggest backroom names in LA, including Greg Kurstin (a producer for Sia and Adele). She met Jay Brown, co-founder and vice chairman of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation empire: a world-renowned executive and force behind several multibillion-dollar brands. He was keen on a ballad she’d written with Greg Kurstin, ‘Promise Me’, but wanted it for Rihanna. 

‘I said, ‘“No, you’re not sending it to Rihanna.” I mean, it was the biggest compliment, but I was, “It’s my song, and I’m an artist, too.”’ The label boss conceded. He suggested they work together. They talked for hours. ‘I left that meeting and thought, “Who’s to say I can’t fire my team?”’ Then, back in London, Glynne lost a close friend in circumstances she doesn’t wish to discuss out of respect for their family. That settled it. 

‘Choose what makes you happy,’ she says. ‘Be true to yourself. Life is precious. That’s when I knew: I had to let go of my team. My friend was very spiritual – she would have understood what I needed. I thought, “Do this, Jess, and make your friend proud.”’ 

Blazer dress and shirt, Tod’s. Earrings and ring, Swarovski.

Glynne fired both her management and label. She was ‘reasonable’, she adds – ‘Many in this industry aren’t!’ – and ‘so, it was on to the next,’ she says, with a toothy smile, lifting an imaginary phone to her ear. ‘Jay, what’s going on?’ 

Glynne is now managed by Roc Nation; she’s met both Jay-Z and Beyoncé, ‘very humble human beings, sweet, charming’, while her team at new label EMI are ‘amazing women – it’s, “Come on Jess, let’s frickin’ ‘ave it!” We all wanna win, together.’ Quietly this year she released three singles from her forthcoming third album, due next year: the drum ’n’ bassy anthem ‘Friend of Mine’, the reflective, retro-tinged ‘Silly Me’ and the disco thriller ‘What Do You Do?’, its suggestive video featuring a high-glam Glynne in bed, in her pants, with both a man and a woman. 

Blazer dress and shirt, Tod’s. Earrings and ring, Swarovski. Socks, Tore. Shoes, Grenson

In October she performed a showcase exclusively for fans in The Hawley Arms, Camden (Amy Winehouse’s famed local), its highlight the first public performance of ‘Promise Me’, backed by piano. The lovelorn ballad has Glynne beseeching, ‘Will you promise me love, even if time takes its toll?’, backed up by vocals that are now less powerhouse pyrotechnics, more tremulous emotional heft. No wonder she radiates confidence. Rihanna’s loss is surely her gain. 

‘I feel very proud of myself,’ she says. ‘I’m like, “You did all of that on your own. You took all those meetings. You flew yourself out there.” I want other women and young girls to be empowered by the decisions they make.’ 

Today’s rapidly changing music industry, she says, has changed again even during her four-year hiatus. ‘Being an artist now, it feels like living through a phone, it’s scary,’ she says. ‘My joy is performing in real life. Music is about connection, isn’t it? Everything is about connection.’ 

Glynne is ambivalent about fame; she loves ‘the events, being an artist, but there’s a heavy side; as a woman, you’re analysed for everything you do, say, wear, and it’s worse now because of social media’. She’s nostalgic for her parents’ era. 

‘I wish I was in the 70s and 80s,’ she says. ‘My mum had it the best! It’s definitely not as fun as it used to be. I love my journey, but I’ve also been incredibly bruised and battered.’ She’s endured several social media pile-ons, most recently in 2021 when brutal abuse for a supposed ‘trans slur’ on Mo Gilligan’s podcast saw her leave Twitter altogether (in a lengthy statement later posted on Instagram, Glynne said she was ‘wholeheartedly sorry’ for referring to a ‘tranny strip-club thing’ on the podcast. She’s since tentatively returned to Twitter). She’s now been in therapy regularly, navigating through stress, insecurity, heartache and grief. ‘Therapy has literally saved my life,’ she says. ‘And I’m now in the best place in myself that I’ve ever been. I know who I am. I know what I want and don’t want.’

Top and skirt, Hellessy. Boots, Emporio Armani

Glynne has always refused to label her sexuality: she has dated both men and women and lives by a simple mantra: ‘Love who you love, be you and be happy,’ she says. ‘But it’s a very brutal world and outside judgment is never easy. When someone says, “Well, what are you? Heterosexual, bisexual, queer?”, I’m like, “Why does that matter to you?”’ Last month, tabloid photos showed Glynne in a clinch in public with rumoured new girlfriend, former Arsenal women’s striker and Football Focus presenter Alex Scott. I wonder if this relationship, too, informs her contentment today.

‘What relationship?’

She stares straight over at her PR, seated well within earshot on the next table. The relationship you’re in with Alex, I reply, that we’ve all seen in the tabloids.

‘But that’s not even… No,’ she responds, calmly. ‘I’ve never ever confirmed that I’m in a relationship with anyone. I’ve always made a conscious effort to keep something for myself. I’ll never change that.’

She fixes me with her pale blue eyes and stays admirably serene. ‘The media is so hounding and my friendships, family, relationships, those are mine,’ she tells me. ‘Going back to Amy, her life and her relationship, it was just so… evil eyed.’

From left: stepping out with TV sports presenter Alex Scott in May; with her parents at her post-tour celebration, 2016; partying with Adele and Geri Horner, 2019

Glynne was 21 when Winehouse died, aged just 27. Ever since, Glynne and her peers, especially the often-invisible Adele, have been understandably keen to keep control of their publicity. Glynne also wants to ensure that nothing distracts from those savvy business endeavours of recent years.

‘No one has come into my life and given me what I have now,’ she makes clear. ‘I’ve given that to myself.’

I just hope you’re very happy, I say.

‘Oh, I am! I’m happy.’

Today, Jess Glynne remains a North Londoner, albeit having recently moved from Islington to ‘north-ish’ London. Her main recommendation for homeliness is ‘good lighting, a candle – I love a Fornasetti’ (a typical 310g Fornasetti candle is yours for £290). She counts Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé as close friends and is typically millennial: feminist, inclusive, ‘90 per cent vegan’ and at the gym ‘most days’. As an artist, she hopes to be a force for good.

‘There’s so much hate out there,’ she says, of the world today. ‘Violence, suffering, kids growing up witnessing all these wars, people are scary… we need to be kind to each other. If there’s one thing I wanna project in what I do, it’s hope. And love. And kindness.’

Her own endeavours have given her financial security; she says she had no money worries over sacking her team and starting all over again. ‘It will always be all right,’ she says. ‘I believe it! I can’t let it not be.’

Glynne prods three times at her heart: ‘I’m a winner in life,’ she declares. ‘If I got here? I can get to anywhere.’ She bursts out laughing at the strength of her self-belief.

It’s almost 5pm. We have been talking for two hours. Where’s she off to now? ‘Gym,’ she announces, as the ghost of her wayward teenage self no doubt cackles somewhere within these walls. We hug goodbye and she leaves me, a pesky reporter, with a message.

‘Be nice.’

Jess Glynne’s new single ‘Friend of Mine’ is out now on EMI. Tickets for her summer 2024 UK tour can be booked at ticketmaster.co.uk 

Fashion director: Sophie Dearden. 

Picture director: Ester Malloy. 

Styling assistant: Jessica Carroll.

Hair: Beth Kucic.

Make-up: Grace Sinnott at Future Rep using Tom Ford Beauty and Elemis. 

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