You can’t imagine it, Jessie J states. There she was gearing up for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.
The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while living with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in London. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She grins. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the fans.”
Personal Battles and News
She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The specialist told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains 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 no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your reports have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal 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 next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. 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 never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
A History of Health Challenges
She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut featuring in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
