You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ 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 hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured 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
