You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
