You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
