You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
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 nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
