You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Imagine rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
