You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
