You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ 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 call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project 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, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
