You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me 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 believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” 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.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! 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 avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
