You can’t imagine it, Jessie J remarks. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an transparent story, dealing with every moment of pain she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in early July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation scary and bizarre. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. During crises you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a medical attire and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”
Oi, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
