You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
