You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
