You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
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 checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
