You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging 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 procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
