You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward several years, and teenage Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
