You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
