You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
