You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly dealing with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I release with a song called 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 cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We meet at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was planning an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist 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 fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer 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 thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, why make it worse, 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. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Frequently they align with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and teenage Jess has joined the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
