You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and blunt. 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 often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was inopportune 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 contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning performing in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
