You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
