You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers 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 specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she contacted me 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 good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast 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 palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
