You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘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, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
