You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
