You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. 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 good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
