You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group 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 the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
