You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. 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. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
