You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown 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 walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. 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. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
