You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, 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, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already beginning performing in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
