You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician 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 tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
