You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a medical attire 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 surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
