You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning 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 receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt 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 considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal recently and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
