Jaquie Brown’s first reaction to being told she had breast cancer was disbelief.
Sitting across from her breast specialist in April, the New Zealand television personality tried to make sense of news that seemed completely at odds with how she saw herself.
“This has to be a mistake,” Brown recalled thinking.
Then came the kind of humour that has long been part of her public voice.
“I’m so healthy! You should see how much broccoli I eat. I give to charity. I let other cars merge in front of me. I rescue worms from the rain.”
But the scan in front of her left little room for that disbelief. Brown said it showed invasive lobular breast cancer, or ILC, in her left breast. She said the cancer had been there for “at least a couple of years” despite her mammograms having come back clear.
For Brown, 50, the discovery marked the beginning of a dramatic few months that included a mastectomy and the prospect of treatment stretching across the next decade.
‘It’s cancer’ says Jaquie Brown
Brown opened her public account with the words she had heard from her specialist: “I’m so sorry, but it’s cancer.”
“Not the best thing I’ve ever heard. Not even in the top 10,” she wrote.
She described ILC as “sneaky”, explaining that it grows through the breast in thin, single-file strands, which can make it more difficult to identify early through standard screening.
Brown also said tests indicated her cancer was not genetic. She identified the tumour as ER+, PR+ and HER2-, and used another dose of dark humour to describe the circumstances around its development.
In her telling, the “recipe” included environmental factors, being over 45 and, importantly, a generous helping of “not my fault”.
It was a light touch on an experience she made clear has been anything but easy.
Mastectomy followed in May
A month after her diagnosis, Brown underwent a mastectomy.
“The weed was removed,” she wrote, continuing a garden metaphor that she used to explain what comes next.
Her treatment, she said, is now about “keeping my garden inhospitable to rogue cancer seeds”.
Brown listed radiation, infusions, further surgeries, injections and pills among what lies ahead, saying the treatment plan will continue for 10 years.
The physical consequences have already required a significant adjustment.
“It’s a profound shift in my body’s chemistry and honestly, I’m both overwhelmed and grateful,” she said.
Rather than presenting herself as having immediately found strength or certainty, Brown described being somewhere in between.
“My mantra is ‘adjust then thrive’, and that’s what I plan on doing. I’m currently in the wobbly adjust phase, but I’ve got my eye on thrive.”
That line perhaps best captures the tone of her disclosure. There is optimism, but Brown does not disguise the instability that has come with the diagnosis.
She described the experience as an “emotional rollercoaster” that had brought a new level of vulnerability and anxiety, while also deepening her empathy for others living with cancer.
A lesson from Dai Henwood came back differently
Brown also reflected on something she had learned from friend and fellow media personality Dai Henwood.
“A diagnosis isn’t just for you; it’s for everyone who cares about you, too,” she said Henwood had taught her.
Brown worked with Henwood on The Life of Dai, and said what she learned through that experience had taken on a different meaning since her own diagnosis in April.
“Thank you, Dai, for your friendship and for preparing me for this without even realising it,” she wrote.
She also thanked Sarah Gandy for her support and her change-and-check campaign, and friend Jessie Stanley, who delivered a breast-themed maple syrup cake before Brown’s surgery.
The humour surrounding the cake did not obscure what Brown said those friendships had meant during treatment.
“My friends have surrounded me with love, and that feels like medicine.”
From disbelief to the ‘wobbly adjust phase’
Brown’s disclosure is striking partly because it does not follow the usual language of a carefully polished health announcement.
She writes about broccoli, rescuing worms, cancer as weeds and a body that unexpectedly produced something she never imagined would be there. Alongside the jokes are blunt admissions of fear, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed.
Her account also makes one detail particularly difficult to ignore: Brown said the cancer had been present for at least a couple of years despite clear mammograms.
She is now recovering from the mastectomy while continuing a much longer treatment programme.
Brown is known for co-creating and starring in The Jaquie Brown Diaries, in which she played a fictionalised version of herself. Her television career has also included work on Campbell Live, C4 Music and The Project.
This time, however, Brown was not playing a version of herself.
Her description of where she is now was considerably simpler.
Still adjusting. Still unsteady. But looking towards thrive.
