You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name J. Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘How about 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 Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside high points for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has become part of the female band Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
