You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
