You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
