You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
