You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly 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.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
