You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album 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 thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels 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 take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
