🔗 Share this article

You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. 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 expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

The singer is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue WPW, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Wow, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees