You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica 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 about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
