You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a gown on 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 op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
