You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, 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. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “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 larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
