You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers 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 specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
