You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call 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 reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
