You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but then 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 surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast 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 fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
