You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. 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 ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a 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 couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
