You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then second single, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while still secretly coping with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Jessie is sharp-witted, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning featuring 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 cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees
