You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
