You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ 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 scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
