You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
