You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
