You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture biker chic meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was planning an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with achievements for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater 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 fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
