You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer 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 highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
