Jenn Sterger, the woman who famously accused Brett Favre of sexual harassment, has undergone a double mastectomy after one of her breasts ‘exploded,’ as she put it in a brutally honest Instagram post.
‘… the right one exploded,’ she wrote. ‘Not the implant, my actual breast.’
The 42-year-old former New York Jets employee has spent the last month going in and out of doctors’ offices, only to end up in the emergency room, where her full health problem was finally explained to her.
‘This past Monday, after another plastic surgery consult, I was emphatically urged to go to an ER,’ she wrote. ‘So I did. They did their own ultrasounds, and tests.. and basically asked for a few days to assemble a team of doctors to handle my case.. you know, like the Avengers.’
There were fears she could face sepsis because, as Sterger explained in the post, she is immunocompromised. With the doctors’ concern mounting, she was rushed into emergency surgery.
‘It was terrifying,’ she continued. ‘I was literally just meeting people, who that same night would hold my life in their hands.’
Sterger shared photographs from her month-long ordeal in a recent Instagram post
In 2008, Sterger was hired in a media role by the New York Jets. She left the team in 2010
Brett Favre was accused of sending Sterger a photo of his genitals during his time in New York
As she described it, the procedure was ‘an emergency implant removal, nipple sparing, double mastectomy.’
While Sterger considered herself lucky to be rid of the problem, the comedian, model and former Jets Gameday ‘host’ is now considering life in a slightly different body.
Exacerbating the issue, she explained, is her recent discovery that her brain works a bit differently than most other people’s.
‘As a late diagnosed neurodivergent woman, I’ve lost count of the number of people who told me, you’d be nothing without your breasts,’ she wrote. ‘They said, “Your career will be over.” And maybe they’re right. Or maybe, it will just remove the part of my career I’ve outgrown anyway.
‘I’m still grappling with how big of a life change it is,’ she continued. ‘And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t in a state of shock.
‘I’m so grateful I’m surrounded [by] such amazing people that stepped up without hesitation and never let me feel alone. But I know ultimately whatever the results come back as, I will face this like I have every other obstacle in my life.. with unbridled resilience and tenacity.’
One of the bigger obstacles Sterger faced through this ordeal was finding the proper healthcare provider.
As she explained, medical doctors insisted the issue needed to be corrected by her plastic surgeon, who paradoxically insisted it was a ‘medical issue.’
Jenn Sterger is seem smiling at the camera before undergoing a double mastectomy
Although she has gone on to have her own career in media, Sterger is best known for accusing Favre of sexual harassment in 2010.
Oddly enough, as she told Netflix in a 2025 documentary about the scandal, she’s never actually met the Hall-of-Fame quarterback.
‘So, here’s the craziest part about the whole scandal — I’ve never met Brett Favre,’ Sterger said in the documentary. ‘We’ve never been in the same room, we’ve never shaken hands, we had no kind of relationship, no rapport, nothing.’
Although both shared an employer, Sterger and Favre worked in very different areas of the business.
In 2008, Sterger accepted a media position as a New York Jets ‘Gameday Host’ when she caught the eye of Favre, who was in the twilight of his career with the team at age 39. It was during this time, she alleged, that Favre left her voicemail messages and even sent her a picture of his genitals – something he has denied.
He has, however, admitted to leaving her messages.
By 2010, both Sterger and Favre had moved on from the Jets when nude photos allegedly sent by the quarterback to the younger TV host surfaced on Deadspin.
Sterger’s life was quickly upended.
‘… I was never treated like a person. I think one of the reasons why it’s so hard for people to have any empathy for me on the internet is because I’m just a picture to them and he was Brett Favre,’ a tearful Sterger told Netflix.
Ex-Jets employee Tim Andre worked with Sterger and corroborated her claims of being ‘stalked and harassed’ by Favre. The Super Bowl winner allegedly would try to get her attention on the sidelines.
‘She felt genuinely uncomfortable and threatened [when Favre started contacting her],’ Andre said. ‘… I could just see it slowly wearing on her. I could see she wasn’t as excited to be involved in the games and how could you blame her?
‘We would be in the tunnel and he’s looking at her and making eye contact, making hand gestures and I’m like, “This guy is about to go play an NFL game, my God.”‘
Things were so bad, Sterger claimed, that she needed to be escorted by Andre at times because she didn’t want to find herself alone with Favre – not that anyone seemed to care.
‘I didn’t want to be on the field,’ she said. ‘Anyone else I told would just shrug it off and say, “We’ll look into it.”‘
Andre also remembers Sterger being ignored by the team.
‘I remember her speaking to me and saying, “No one’s listening to me, no one cares,”‘ he said. ‘You have someone from your company being stalked and harassed by another person from your company and to not even take it seriously just even hear her out, to me that’s scary.’
Sterger’s role with the Jets involved her shooting various segments for TV and the website
Sterger publicly accused Favre of sexual harassment in 2010 after she was let go by the Jets.
‘At the end of the year my contract was not renewed — shocker,’ she said. ‘I kind of went into hiding. I just wanted to put the whole experience behind me. It was too humiliating to talk to people about what happened to me.’
By that time, Favre was winding up his career with the Minnesota Vikings.
In the end, Favre was fined $50,000 for failing to cooperate with the NFL investigation. Officially, the league never proved it was Favre who sent the photos to Sterger, so he was not found to be in violation of the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
He and the Jets both declined to be involved with the Netflix special.
‘My life was ruined and he went to the Hall of Fame,’ Sterger told Netflix.
Of course, Favre has faced other allegations of misconduct, including his recent welfare scandal in Mississippi that led to six arrests after $94 million in alleged fraud was revealed by the state auditor.
Favre was never charged, and while he has denied knowingly receiving welfare funds, he has been forced to make $1 million in repayments to the government.
