You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. 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
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
