You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘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 says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘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 dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (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 fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
