You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if 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 smiles. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning 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 a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital 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 automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
