You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was planning an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected 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 vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
