You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, 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 flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
