You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was intended as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning performing in the London theater 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 rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
