You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected 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 dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
