You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically 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.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already making her debut starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
