You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
