You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
