You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
