You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J remarks. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Jessie is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I often tease the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group the group while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
