You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
