You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent 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. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
