You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “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.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has become part of the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
