You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
