You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). 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 palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
