You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning featuring 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 cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
