You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ 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 childhood, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
