You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts 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 doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus 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 expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, 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 obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the female band the group while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
