You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. 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 hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
