You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “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.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
