You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ 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 start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched 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 lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already beginning starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
