You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after eight years without an album 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 believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV 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 academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
