You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
