You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ 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, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘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 affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
