You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. 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 believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness 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 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
