You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue 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 partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
