You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-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 the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” 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 underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
