You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
