You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened 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 for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
