You wouldn’t believe it, Jessie J says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The LP, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, miscarriage, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with the disease. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her initial standup show soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I basically roast the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
She was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on 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 the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial 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 scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my rear exposed. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut featuring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio the group while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was ready to debut in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
