You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is known for being brutally honest. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and oversized specs. Think 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, thinking of the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a long period.”
Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
