You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells 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 four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
