You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
