You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style 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, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
