You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting 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 awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt 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 fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
