You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘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 informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
