You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
