Jacqueline Coleman knows she’s “a hard nut to crack.”

A basketball coach, educator and mother, Coleman has brought a certain no-nonsense demeanor with her to the lieutenant governor’s office.

Despite her tendency to keep things close to the vest, holding elected office has meant Coleman has lived out some deeply personal moments of womanhood in a very public way.

At the beginning of her first term, it was pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. As she begins her second, it is a cancer scare, a double-mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Throughout it all, Coleman, 41, has leaned into feeling vulnerable.

“I just kind of had to embrace it, both the pregnancy and with this,” she told the Herald-Leader in an interview Tuesday morning from her office in the Capitol.

“It really made me think about how thankful and how grateful I am. Through both of those things, whether it was bringing (my daughter) Evelynne to work, wrangling her at an event, and all the moms saying, ‘Oh gosh, we have to do the same thing.’

“And now this, with so many women saying, ‘I’ve been through this before. Thank you for sharing your journey.’”

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Alongside Gov. Andy Beshear, Coleman ran for a second term in 2023 in an expensive and closely watched campaign against Republican then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron and his running mate, Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson.

Coleman was active throughout the bruising election cycle, which included a “Protect Our Public Schools” tour she launched in September, a live televised debate against Mills in October and a statewide bus tour in the final week before Election Day.

In the background of it all, Coleman was grappling with the uncertainty around her health. A mammogram in September led to further — and more invasive — testing, just as campaigning kicked into high gear.

Beshear and Coleman emerged from election night as the only Democrats to win a statewide race and were sworn in for a second term on a Tuesday in December.

Coleman made history that day, becoming the first woman to take the oath of office as Kentucky lieutenant governor for a second time.

The next Monday, on Dec. 18, Coleman underwent a five-hour surgery in Lexington to have both of her breasts removed, a decision she had shared with few people.

Nema Brewer, a co-founder of the KY120 United-AFT union who has known Coleman since 2017, learned of the surgery only the day before it happened on a group call with friends.

“We were mad because she didn’t tell us, but then, this is Jacqueline,” Brewer said. “She is incredibly private and stoic. She’s a tough woman. She’s a bad-ass. She handles her business and moves on, and is not a complainer. She’s a coach. She’s tough as nails. She’s a Kentucky woman.

“She doesn’t feel sorry for herself. And so that’s kind of how I figured she would handle this whole thing. … If anybody was going to handle it in this kind of way, it was going to be Jacqueline.”

‘That was a hard moment’

Coleman’s health journey began in September when she had the first mammogram of her life.

The results showed she’d need further testing, including an MRI and a biopsy, which then uncovered four lesions in her breasts, including one of great concern to her medical team.

“It just kept going with all these more invasive screenings,” she said. “And once I got the news that I was, one way or another, I was gonna have surgery. I just didn’t know what it was. That was a hard moment. I was by myself, because you think you’re going to the doctor for a routine screening and you get this news. That was really hard.”

Throughout the election cycle, Coleman had her health in the back of her mind, even as she was logging 14- and 16-hour work days. But the campaign also gave her a place to direct that anxious energy and redoubled her resolve to keep up the fight.

“We talked about that roller coaster at the end of the campaign, and think about how silly campaigns are during that time period. It’s silly season,” she said. “You’re dealing with all of these things that keep coming out, and things that keep being said, and again, in the back of my mind is, ‘You people need to grow up. There are real problems in this world and a tweet is not one of them. Or, a side story is not one of them.’

“I found myself getting really frustrated — more frustrated than usual, let me say — with that silly campaign stuff. That’s not important. But certainly going through this process and getting back (to Frankfort) is important to me.”

Coleman said “most people would tell you, I’m really not one for — we’ll call it BS — anyway, but certainly not now.

“You see these things that come up, these issues, these topics, these things that are being discussed, as if it’s feeding hungry children, and you’re just like, ‘There are so many issues that are real, and that matter to people.’ I’m even less tolerant of that now than I was before because there’s just too much work to be done.”

What was most difficult for Coleman was between knowing “something had to be done and not knowing what you could do.” There was a lot of uncertainty, and Coleman admits “I don’t do well with uncertainty.”

“Because I had questions. I didn’t know what was gonna happen,” she said. “So when I went and met with a surgeon… we went through all the options; we can biopsy and remove each of these places. And I just looked at him and I said, ‘I just don’t want to live like that.’”

The surgeon told Coleman given her family history — her mother, aunt and cousin all had breast cancer — she was considered high-risk. With all these factors, she qualified for a double mastectomy with her insurance.

“And I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

With her daughters Emma and Evelynne in mind, Coleman decided on the double mastectomy in early December and asked her doctors to book her for the first available opportunity after the Dec. 12 inauguration.

She was scheduled for the next Monday.

“Thinking about being there for them was really hard, and I think that’s probably why I didn’t second-guess being very aggressive with this,” she said. “I had to think about what would be fair to them, too.”

‘Didn’t know this was so common’

News of Coleman’s surgery came as a surprise to many the week before Christmas.

Kentucky Young Democrats President Allison Wiseman said this experience shows how “resilient” and “strong” Coleman is.

“I was with her at the inauguration, dancing with her and having a great time at the inauguration gala that night,” Wiseman said.

“Knowing that was going on in her head at the same time as celebrating this amazing reelection, to me, it just shows that she is so strong and willing to not let that really hinder a celebration, for example, or hinder the dedication that she poured out from herself on the campaign trail day in and day out, especially those last few weeks.”

Coleman had spent much of the previous months feeling like she was going through her ordeal alone.

Beshear offered Coleman his full support, promising her that no part of the campaign was more important than her health. Coleman also praised her husband, Chris O’Bryan, and her medical team for their steady reassurance.

“First and foremost, I have to give a lot of credit to Chris,” she said. “I joked with him… One day we were at home and I said, ‘I bet you didn’t realize that when you said ‘til death do us part, you’d have to clear my drains one day.’ It’s an awful, awful process to have drains and things like that, and he never batted an eye.”

But prior to going public, Coleman had no idea how common her situation was.

“I didn’t know anybody who had been through it. I didn’t have anybody to talk to, to ask questions about what it was like,” she said. “The letters and the calls that I got from women all across Kentucky — in my own neighborhood — that said, ‘I went through this five years ago.’ ‘My sister went through this two years ago.’ ‘I went through this 10 years ago, and you’re going to be great.’

“It was a little shocking to me, and it just made me think I don’t want women to feel like they have to go through it alone, and I know that this is way more common than, probably, what we talk about. That’s something that stuck with me, too, thinking about how many women out there are worried about staying alive and pickup their kids up and going to the grocery and going to work and all of those things with that in the back of your mind.

“Obviously they do it flawlessly because I didn’t know that this was so common.”

Coleman’s social media was inundated with support following her decision to go public.

“My dear friend made the same decision a decade ago or so,” one Facebook comment read. “She has good health, peace of mind, and no regrets whatsoever ever since.”

“I too was diagnosed in my 40’s and had a double mastectomy and TRAM flap reconstruction,” another woman wrote. “I am happy to share with you that I am now 72 years old and a 26-year survivor with many happy memories.”

All four of Coleman’s lesions came back as benign after surgery, but the one that most troubled her doctors had the potential to become malignant.

“Regardless of what the pathology said, it made me feel better to do this,” she said. “But knowing that was just like, an exhale. Like, I feel like I beat the clock, and I feel like I made the right decision.”

‘Women can do hard things’

Whether its in coaching or Kentucky politics, Coleman is used to being a woman in an old boys club.

But she’s also never let that stop her from embracing her femininity, whether that’s meant wearing dresses and heels on the sidelines of a basketball court or giving an election night victory speech in a hot-pink pantsuit.

Like so many women who have undergone this surgery, Coleman said she’s grappled with her body image.

“There’s nothing that can prepare you for the first time you see the scars,” she said. “It takes your breath away. And, it’s a little bit scary when you realize what happened to you over those five hours.”

Coleman opted for immediate reconstruction and will have one more surgery in a few months to complete the process. She said it’s not something all women choose to do, but it felt right for her.

“It seems superficial to say that you’re worried about that, but how could you not be?” she said. “It’s a part of you. It’s who you are, what you look like.”

Even if reconstruction wasn’t an option, Coleman said she still would have gone ahead with the surgery.

“I just couldn’t risk it. I have a 3-year-old,” she said. “I would say that’s a secondary worry to everything else, right? You hope to have the privilege to worry about that afterwards.”

Emilie McKiernan Blanton, a Jefferson County Teachers Association regional board director, said Coleman’s decision to be so candid about her health is “honestly breathtaking.”

“It’s just been incredible to get to watch her as a lieutenant governor, especially as a first-time mom as lieutenant governor, and getting to watch her go through that whole journey,” McKiernan Blanton said. “It honestly feels like a large piece of her health — and her health journey in general — has been a part of the public eye. It’s one thin to be pregnant, but to go through the entire pregnancy in the public eye while on a campaign, give birth in office — just incredible.

“Women can do hard things,” she added, “and women can do difficult things.”

Coleman has already heard stories of women in her life who are getting proactive about their health. A woman at her church said she’s been putting off her mammogram, but scheduled it after hearing about Coleman’s surgery.

Another friend decided to quit smoking, Coleman said.

At 50, Brewer said Coleman is why she finally scheduled her first mammogram.

“If anybody is going to unexpectedly be the face of this in Kentucky without really ever asking for it, it will be Jacqueline Coleman because she’s not afraid, and she’s not afraid to face it head-on, and she’s not afraid to have those conversations,” Brewer said.

“Even though she’s intensely private, she will pick up this mantle and just carry it with grace, dignity, strength and fierceness, just like she does everything else.”

What do you say when a friend, one that you “see as invincible,” tells you they’ve been scared, Brewer asked.

“I think what you do is, you say, ‘Well, I’m scared, too, but let’s face this together.’”

Throughout the last month, Coleman appreciates that so many women have reached out to give her comfort. Now, she hopes telling her story is a way of paying it forward.

“I try not to overshare, obviously, you do have to have a sense of privacy,” she said. “But I share where I feel like it will be helpful, particularly to women, to know it’s OK.”