You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s 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 grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful 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 fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record 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 throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
