You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
