You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
