You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
