You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great 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 terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically 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.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
