You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘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 oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
