You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
