You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, 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 get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
