You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? 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. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, 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 adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
