You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
