You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; 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 wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, 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 couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
