You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, 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, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
