You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment 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 dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
