You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I 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 terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
