You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
