You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically 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.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
