You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while still secretly coping with the disease. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, 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. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has entered the trio the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
