You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my 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 tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
