You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment gearing up 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 facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think rocker vibe 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, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. During crises you go on a gurney, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio the group while attending the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
