You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered 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 often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing 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 assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched 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 lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
