You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
