You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial 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 considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
