You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
