You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
