You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
