You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, 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 rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (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 dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
