You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘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’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
