You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down 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 blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
