You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
