You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish 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 told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
