You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
