You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Then in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last recorded music (endometrial issues, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while at the same time living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She offers me her best “What the fuck?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. On stage I often tease the crowd.”
Personal Battles and News
The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then she had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “It’s terrible, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy 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 boobs, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! 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 familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her youth, already starting her career starring in the West End in the production (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
