You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ 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 fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ 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. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. 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 perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, 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 childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
