You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was gearing up for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was told she had breast cancer.
The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every moment of pain she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, 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. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”
Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
