Home & Away star Tessa James opens up on her fight with cancer

Former Home & Away star Tessa James has been photographed 24-weeks pregnant for the cover of ELLE Australia's December issue.

The actress and her former NRL star husband, Nate Myles, are looking forward to welcoming their new baby in the coming weeks.

James is pregnant with her first child three years after entering remission from cancer.

Tessa James' ELLE Australia cover. Photo / supplied

In an exclusive interview she opens up about her decision to not put off cancer treatment in order to freeze her eggs, a process that would have delayed her treatment by a month or more.

She also discusses:

Her cancer battle

"I was extremely lucky. I got through what happened to me and a lot of people don't. For [her husband] Nate and me, it was our first real challenge as a couple and it was hard and not nice, and not glamorous and very confronting. But at the same time, life's not going to be perfect and we are so much better because of it."

Her "miracle" baby

"I think that 'miracle' has come from the media and not from something that I've said, but in saying that, being pregnant is a miracle because growing a baby, it's pretty incredible when you think about it. When you haven't had children and you see mums and kids everywhere you just think that's normal. But when it happens to you, you're like, 'Oh my gosh, all these women have done this? Wow.'"

Being pregnant

"It was kicking the other day, it kicks like crazy, and it freaks me out because I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I actually have something inside of me, I'm growing a human.' It's really bizarre."

Her philosophical outlook on life

"Things are meant to happen the way they're meant to happen. You can get very fixated on going from A to B, to C to D, and things happening exactly the way that you planned it in your head. For me and for us, it just hasn't happened like that at all and that's actually really cool. It's made me think that it's okay that didn't quite work out, because I know that something else is going to happen. It's meant to be. As frivolous or airy as that might sound, I think it's a really nice way to be because it takes the pressure off."