You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an candid account, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. A month later she went public, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. 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 considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
