You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me 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 believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
