You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring 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 dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
