You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
