You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an transparent story, tackling every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in early July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to be complacent. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
