Former Home and Away star Tessa James shows off transformation

It's been 12 years since Tessa James left Home and Away, and a lot has changed for the former actress, who appeared on The Morning Show on Thursday.

The 32-year-old joked to hosts Kylie Gillies and Matt Doran that she's "lived three or four lives" since leaving Summer Bay and quitting acting.

The star looked very different to the Tessa fans knew on Home and Away, with her bleach blonde surfer style nowhere to be found, with Tessa instead choosing to slick her locks back into a bun and wearing a white suit for the interview.

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The mum-of-three revealed on the show that she, her mum and her sister have started a home styling business called AKI Interior Design.

"I’ve always been creative and my mum is an interior architect and so is my sister," she explained to the hosts. "We decided to come together and rebrand AKI and really go for it. I’m studying interior architecture - I’m halfway through that degree - and we just really enjoy working with each other.

"We are a really good support system with each other and we are able to help each other. My sister has a little girl as well, so it’s a nice juggling act."

Kylie joked that AKI Interior Design should redesign the Home and Away sets, with Tessa agreeing, "They should get me back to redesign the set of Home and Away, that would be good."

"The diner's looking a little tired!" Kylie responded.

When Tessa was just 23 she discovered a lump above her collarbone and was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, with the star previously telling Stellar Magazine that she was always positive during her cancer battle.

"I wasn’t positive, not the whole time, for sure," she told the publication. "But you just have to keep going because things aren’t going to go the way you think all the time."

Since being given the all-clear, Tessa shared that she wouldn't let the cancer define her, "It adds to the person that you are, and gives you empathy towards other people. I look at it as something that’s added to my life. And I got through it.

"So I’m not resentful in any way. Not at all. I’m not one to regret — and I try very hard not to look back. I would tell my younger self to know that it’s not going to work out how you thought, but that’s OK."

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