You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts 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 automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
