You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
