You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
