You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J states. There she was readying for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in March she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with the disease. A month later she shared the news, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ 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 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 medical attire and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy recently and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and teenage Jess has become part of the girl group the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
