You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious 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 simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
