You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
