You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time coping with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she had a mastectomy.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an performance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened recently and my one side now resembles a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career featuring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the girl group the group while studying at the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees
