You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘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 says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
