You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems 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. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already beginning featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
