You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away 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 fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
