You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for ten years, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I like entertaining. During performances I often tease the audience.”
Health Struggles and Diagnosis
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but now I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”
Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
