You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
