You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
