You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, 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 start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, 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 attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, 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 was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
