You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
