You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ 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 the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in 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 the year 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
