You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.
The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The initial release, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was talking to press about how she was thriving, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.
She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
We’re at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and oversized specs. Imagine biker chic meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
The artist was planning an performance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had many commitments.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt 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. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, no need to bully me, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”
Past Medical Issues
Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so positive because she’s experienced in physical challenges. They have often coincided with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”
She takes me back to her youth, already beginning performing in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”
Wow, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
