Jessie J shared a meaningful moment with Kate Middleton earlier this month, as the two embraced at the Royal Variety Performance on Nov. 19.
The encounter was particularly poignant, as both the singer and Princess of Wales are recent cancer survivors.
Jessie J, whose real name is Jessica Cornish, opened up about the two’s meeting in an interview with “Good Morning America” on Friday.
“Did Princess Kate say anything to you, mom to mom?” asked Maggie Rulli, foreign correspondent for ABC News.
“She just said, ‘Thank you, I know you’ve gone through a tough time,’” Jessie J shared. “I said, ‘I know you have too.’ I just said, ‘I want to acknowledge that, mum to mum, cancer survivor to cancer survivor. I see you, and I feel you. Can I give you a hug?’ She said, ‘Of course you can.’”
It is typically viewed as a breach of royal protocol to touch a royal. The “Bang Bang” singer added that she was just “grateful she received it in the way it was meant.”
Jessie J and Princess of Wales embrace as the royal meets a number of performers and representatives at the Royal Variety Performance on Nov. 19.
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Jessie J previously opened up about her sweet moment with the royal, saying that though she “was briefed not to” hug Kate, she “just saw a mom that has also gone through cancer publicly, and I just wanted to give her a hug.”
“It was as simple as that I didn’t see her as the Princess of Wales. I mean obviously I did ― and I was respectful,” the singer said on the U.K.’s “This Morning” show earlier this week. “I know the days that she has maybe gone through, and I just wanted to give her a hug — mom to mom, human to human.”
Kate announced publicly in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer, though she has never clarified the type of cancer she has. In September 2024, the royal announced that she’d completed chemotherapy. Just a few months later, she said that her cancer was in remission.
Jessie J announced in June that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was “going to disappear for a bit” to have surgery.
Jessie J attends the Royal Variety Performance at the Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 19 in London, England.
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