You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
