You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked 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 blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
