You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, dealing with every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel 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 smiles. Jessie is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have indicated malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut starring in the London theater in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
