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 mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, 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 high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a 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 lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
