You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
