You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking 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 regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
