As she returns to the music scene after a two-year break, Jessie J has revealed illness was to blame for her absence.
Although she is not ready to reveal the exact nature of her illness yet, Jessie – who was last in the spotlight as a judge on The Voice Australia – said she was diagnosed during her two year stint on the programme.
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“I was diagnosed with some health issues that I’m not ready to talk about that I had to really face as a woman,” she told the Daily Star Sunday.
Tragedy struck again when Jessie lost both her grandparents during the same period.
“I didn’t have time to grieve. The hardest part about being an artist is that you have to open your wounds to heal other people’s and you don’t often get the time to heal your own.”
The comments come as Jessie makes a brilliant comeback with her latest single, Think About That, a restrained piano ballad paired with a more uptempo beat. It features lyrics like ‘I was living my dreams through your eyes/ Building my life on your lies’, which portray the idea of a bad relationship holding someone back in their life.
In the music video, which is shot entirely in black and white, Jessie wears bondage-style costumes, which fits the song’s subject matter.
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Jessie has achieved tremendous success in spite of a lifetime of illness, having battled a series of conditions when she was younger.
First, she was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat when she was seven, then she suffered a stroke at the age of 18.
She described her experiences in her autobiography, Nice To Meet You, published in 2013:
“I remember collapsing a lot and having seizures. I was a sickly, skinny girl who had a slight green tinge to her skin because of the drugs and who was always in and out of hospital.
“There would be times when I’d be acting normal and then I’d just collapse. It was only then that people would realise I wasn’t well. I suppose I was good at covering it up and I know I’m very good at that now.”