You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees