You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Then in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group the group 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 recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
