You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured 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
