You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
