You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘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.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “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 grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
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, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, 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 brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
