You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain 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 doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, 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 perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
