You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ 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 bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. 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 hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
