You can’t imagine it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She shoots me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist 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 looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”
The next operation is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She recalls to her youth, already beginning performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and young Jessica has entered the girl group Soul Deep while attending 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 recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
