You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, 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 suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning featuring in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
