You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, bold and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
