You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. 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 a long hiatus 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 join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
