You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, 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. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, 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 numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). 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 palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
