Jesse Solomon is recalling how his past testicular cancer diagnosis changed the way he looked at the world.
Speaking to People in an interview published on Thursday, July 23, the Summer House star, 33, said his health scare majorly shifted his perspective.
“I was never fulfilled doing finance,” Jesse explained of his career path before joining Summer House and pursuing his music ambitions. “Getting diagnosed with cancer the first time was a scary thing and then when it comes back, it was really a lesson of, ‘You never know what’s gonna happen tomorrow so you might as well live life to the fullest today.’”
Jesse added that he’s also hoping for a more fulfilling type of relationship in this stage of his life — which he sings about in his latest single, “Wildfire.”
“I try not to write about love and relationship stuff too much because not that it’s overdone… But this one just came to me, and it was kinda like, if it’s not that wildfire love, I don’t want it,” he told People. “I‘ve dated people, and I just haven’t felt that truly passionate… I don’t want anything else.”
Jesse was diagnosed with testicular cancer in August 2017 and again in July 2018. The reality TV star underwent chemotherapy and has been in remission for the past seven years.
In March 2024, Jesse shared a candid insight into what it was like hearing the bad news about his health.
“I felt, like, a twinge of pain in my testicle. I didn’t really think anything of it,” Jesse told Today at the time. “The doctor said, ‘You know it’s probably nothing but go get an ultrasound.’”
At first, Jesse assumed that he had “chlamydia or something,” but the ultrasound, which he received in 2017, revealed that he had testicular cancer.
The doctor was like, ‘Hey, so it looks like you have cancer. We won’t know for sure until we remove the testicle but that’s likely the next step,’” the Bravo star recounted. “It was a bit of a shock.”
Jesse described the “painful” surgery to remove his testicle, comparing it to “piranhas jumping around in your stomach while getting kicked in the nuts by a small child.”
Nearly a year after the surgery, Jesse’s doctor found cancer in the lymphnodes in his stomach — meaning he had stage 2 testicular cancer. He underwent four rounds of chemotherapy from July to September 2018.
“I was nauseous all the time and didn’t feel great,” Jesse told Today. “I definitely lost my hair, like my eyebrows towards the end. I definitely had, like, tingling in the fingers and the toes and ringing in my ears.”
Jesse told Today that he hoped that by sharing his story, it would influence other men to get tested and hopefully, he would help save lives.
“I want men to know that they should be giving themselves regular physical exams because that’s the best way to be able to tell if there’s something going on,” Jesse told Today. “I caught it early … Maybe it will encourage other people to go and get checked.”
