You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture 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. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
