You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living 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 “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched 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 blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
