You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. 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 perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
