You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
