You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
