You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk 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 says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful 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 scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
