You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
