You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the crowd.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was preparing for an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after eight years without an album and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, acting as a reminder, or blow, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse 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 six years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
