Sydney, Australia – For years, she graced our screens as the beloved Nicole Franklin on the sun-drenched shores of Summer Bay, embodying the quintessential Australian dream. Tessa James, with her infectious smile and undeniable talent, seemed destined for the bright lights of Hollywood. Yet, a year ago, as she chased that very dream in the bustling heart of Los Angeles, a nightmare began to unfold, pulling her into a real-life drama more profound and terrifying than any script could ever conjure. In a raw, intensely moving revelation, James has opened up about her harrowing battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a journey that tested her physical endurance, shattered her emotional fortitude, and ultimately, forged an indomitable spirit.
The initial signs were subtle, a creeping malaise she tried to dismiss. “I wasn’t myself,” James recalls, describing a gradual fading of her natural vibrancy, a subtle shift in the colour of her skin. The relentless grind of chasing auditions in LA was demanding, and Tessa, like many, initially attributed her fatigue to the high-pressure environment. But this was no ordinary exhaustion. It was a profound shift in her very essence, a silent alarm ringing within her body.
The alarm grew louder with a chilling discovery: a lump, noticeably large, protruding above her collarbone. “I just immediately kind of got this like, ‘Oh, that’s not right’,” she recounts, the memory still palpable. The moment she felt it, a primal fear seized her. Her body changed, a visceral knowing that something was terribly wrong. Despite her own attempts to quell the rising anxiety – “Don’t be so stupid, like just, you know, can we not be so dramatic? It’s just a lump” – the insistent whispers of concern from her father echoed her deepest fears. The Hollywood dream, so vivid just weeks prior, abruptly faded as Tessa made the crucial decision to return home to the Gold Coast for immediate tests.
The fear that clung to her and her family proved tragically prescient. A biopsy delivered the shattering confirmation: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The diagnosis was a thunderclap, plunging her into a state of profound shock. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which causes enlarged lymph nodes and cripples the body’s immune response, can invade the bloodstream and spread rapidly, posing a very real threat to life. For Tessa, a young woman in the prime of her life, the gravity of the diagnosis was almost unfathomable. “I bet you never thought it would happen to you?” she was asked. Her simple, emphatic “No, never,” encapsulated the disbelief that accompanies such a life-altering pronouncement.
But the universe, it seemed, had an even crueller twist of fate in store, a narrative detail that even the most imaginative “Home and Away” scriptwriter might deem too improbable. At the same time Tessa was grappling with her Hodgkin’s diagnosis, her father, former AFL footballer Steve James, was also battling lymphatic cancer – non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. While differing in cell type, both are potentially fatal. The revelation brought an almost unbearable layer of devastation. “Surely it can’t happen to both of them?” the interviewer pondered, mirroring the collective shock. “It’s just something that you… you know, I thought, ‘I want out of the whole family, it’s just happened to me, that’s fine’,” Tessa reflects, her voice heavy with the memory of that double blow. But for Steve, seeing his “baby girl” face the same terrifying fight was “tough.” “It was sort of like the innocence had gone out of our family,” he admitted, a poignant insight into the profound emotional toll cancer inflicts on a family unit.
Though their treatments differed, Tessa and Steve faced the same terrifying question: Would they survive? Steve, having already walked a part of that path, knew the arduous climb his daughter faced. “I knew what she had to fight and face,” he confessed, tearing up. “I knew that that was going to be like, you know, she was going to have to climb a mountain. She was going to have to really fight hard.” Tessa, despite the fear, clung to a fierce determination: “I know, Dad, I can do it… I’m going to be fine, so I can’t be that hard.” It was a declaration of defiance, a young woman steeling herself for the fight of her life.
What followed was a punishing, prolonged odyssey. Tessa embarked on 12 gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, initially every three weeks, then every two weeks for six months. “I had treatment every three weeks and I sort of like had, out of every three weeks, one good week,” she describes, painting a stark picture of relentless sickness. Her husband, NRL and State of Origin star Nate Myles, remained steadfastly by her side, a constant presence through every nauseating cycle. Myles, known for his formidable public image as a tough rugby league player, revealed a profoundly tender side. “You don’t really think that they’re big softies underneath, so he’s a big softy underneath?” the interviewer probed. “Yeah, he’s more emotional than I am,” Tessa affirmed, her affection evident.
Their 2011 wedding, a reflection of their true selves, had prepared them for life’s challenges, but nothing could have braced them for this. Nate navigated the immense pressures of his demanding public life while simultaneously becoming Tessa’s primary carer, a role he embraced without hesitation. “I think it was almost like a novelty in a weird way,” Tessa muses about the initial treatments, “and then after the first couple of times that I’d had treatment, like that novelty, you know, that wears off, trust me.” He witnessed the brutal transformation, the vibrant Tessa entering the hospital and a depleted, profoundly unwell woman emerging. “You can’t describe the feeling,” Tessa struggles to articulate, “because it’s beyond feeling sick or nauseous. To sit in that chair and know that in like a couple of hours I was not going to feel good, that was hot, ’cause the change was just huge.”
Alongside Nate, her mother Shona was an unwavering pillar of strength. “I went into mum mode,” Shona explains, “as a mother does, and you just want to protect them and tried to be, you know, strong and it’s okay.” Together, Nate and Shona established a ritual, accompanying Tessa to every session, getting to know the nurses who became an integral part of their support system. “My mom’s amazing,” Tessa reiterates, acknowledging the immense sacrifices and emotional burden her mother carried, “I just couldn’t fall in a heap like I am now, I had to… I had to hold it together basically.”
Midway through her treatment, a profound moment of surrender arrived with the loss of her hair. “It made it real,” Tessa admits, the act of shaving her head a stark, public declaration of her battle. Nate, witnessing his wife’s brave act, simply says, “She was amazing, she just took it on and scared the out of everyone, but now she’s rocking it, I think she looks amazing.” The physical change symbolised the depth of her illness, making it clear this was no “quick fix.”
As the relentless chemotherapy wore on, Tessa’s formidable spirit began to wane. There were moments when the fun, resilient patient gave way to profound fear and despair. “I just felt sick, felt really, really unwell,” she recalls of one particularly dark session. The medication, designed to save her life, brought with it crippling anxiety. She suffered a panic attack, calling her father in a moment of utter desperation. “I want to die,” she confessed, “I don’t want to do this, I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough like this isn’t worth it like I just, I don’t want to feel sick anymore. Like there’s got to be another way.” It was a chilling testament to the brutal toll of treatment, the human spirit pushed to its absolute breaking point. Her father, hearing such raw agony, could only counsel her to “treat it as your friend, it’s there to make you better.” The hardest part, she explains, was “not knowing what the drugs were doing,” the terrifying uncertainty that the agony might be for naught. “It’s traumatic, it’s really traumatic.”
But Tessa James, the young actress who once thought she had no dramatic story of her own, ultimately defied the odds. After six grueling months, enduring 12 punishing rounds of chemotherapy, she reached the end of her treatment. It was the toughest role she’d ever taken on, a journey worthy of a superhero. “You dressed up as Wonder Woman?” the interviewer asked, referencing a celebratory photo. “That wasn’t my idea, that was Nate’s!” Tessa laughed, adding, “But I felt like a Wonder Woman at the end of it.”
Today, Tessa, Nate, and Shona return to the hospital not as patients, but as visitors, a triumphant gesture of gratitude to the nurses who became pillars of support. “I had the same nurses the whole time and a lot of people don’t get that,” Tessa explains, highlighting the comfort found in their consistent care. “It wasn’t a bad place for me, it never had a bad vibe,” she concludes, having transformed a place of suffering into a beacon of healing.
And the most beautiful experience of all: Tessa James confidently declares that she has beaten cancer. “I’m fine, yeah, I’m totally, I’m totally fine,” she says, her voice ringing with certainty. Regular blood tests will be a part of her new normal, but her prognosis is excellent. Her father, Steve, too, is on the precipice of being in the clear, with one more treatment and scans ahead. “We now dad and I have a little club going,” Tessa smiles, highlighting the unique, unbreakable bond forged through their shared ordeal. This dual battle, though devastating, brought them closer, offering a profound understanding and support system. “This definitely made us better,” Tessa asserts, “it made us as a whole really understand a lot more with where we… where we want to be later on in life.”
Their future now includes the joyous prospect of children, a concern during treatment due to chemotherapy’s impact on fertility. “Yeah, I was [worried],” Tessa admits, but they chose to prioritise treatment, trusting that “if it’s meant to be, it’ll be.” And the Hollywood dream? It remains fiercely alive. “I have huge dreams, probably too big,” she confesses, “that’s my dream to be in film and and just to work… just to be a working actress would be would be the ultimate, would be amazing.”
Her former castmates and friends from “Home and Away” and Hollywood are unequivocally behind her, sending heartfelt messages of support and admiration for her “courage, determination, and incredible strength.” Tessa James’s story is a testament to the power of the human spirit, a narrative that has taken her from the sun-drenched sets of Summer Bay to the harrowing depths of a cancer battle, only to emerge stronger, more determined, and with a story that truly makes her an inspiration. The bright lights of Hollywood await, and this time, Tessa James is not just chasing a dream; she’s stepping into a future defined by unwavering resilience and triumphant hope.
