You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, 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 ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the London theater 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 WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
