You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about 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 contact on the start of the week. 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.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
