You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group 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 car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees