You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, 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 at the same time dealing with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees