You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done 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 familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided 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, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
