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Jessie J is sharing more about her difficult health journey. The "Price Tag" singer, 37, was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome—a congenital heart condition—as a child, and this past March, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. However, she's recently shared her scary health challenges don't end there. In fact, two decades ago, she experienced a stroke at just 17 years old.
"I just got my first record deal, and I had a stroke," she told The Guardian in a November 29 interview. "I was on the train, and my face dropped."
She went to see her doctor right away, who told her she had a minor stroke and called for an ambulance. As Jessie explained, "I was in the hospital for four to five weeks."
And that wasn't all: three years later, an accident left her with an injury that prevented her from singing.
"Then when I was about to put out music in 2020," she went on, "I had a car crash, and my larynx moved up, and I couldn't sing for a year."
However, Jessie, who revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in June, noted that her various health challenges over the years have given her the strength to fight.
"I've clearly got an addiction to being diagnosed with things," she told me. "So maybe the cancer is part of that."
That strength began in her childhood, when she credits her parents with inspiring her to believe she could accomplish anything despite her heart condition.
"My mum and dad always did such a great job of not making that the definitive thing in my life and not making me define my character by my worst days," she said with pride. "That was amazing, and it has continued to this day.”
Jessie, who has a two-year-old son named Sky with basketball player Chanan Safir Colman, has previously stated that she hopes that being open about her struggles will both comfort her and help others who are facing similar challenges.
"Sharing in the past has helped me, with other people giving me their love and support, as well as their own stories," Jessie explained in an Instagram video on June 3. "It breaks my heart that so many people are going through so much similar and worse."
As she stated, "I'm an open book."
