Yael Cohen

Lore & Background

Yael Cohen was born in South Africa to a Jewish family. In 1994, her family moved to Canada. She attended the University of British Columbia to study political science. In 2009, after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Cohen organized the nonprofit Fuck Cancer, which focuses on encouraging millennials to talk about early cancer detection. In 2016, Fuck Cancer collaborated with jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher to support cancer victims.

In 2013, Cohen began a relationship with music manager Scooter Braun. They married on July 6, 2014, and have three children. Cohen and Braun held a fundraiser for Kamala Harris during the 2020 Democratic primaries. In July 2021, it was reported that the couple had separated and that Braun had filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized in July 2022.

Reader's Guide

Yael Cohen's significance lies in her founding of Fuck Cancer, a nonprofit that uses direct language to engage millennials in early cancer detection conversations. Her work emerged from a personal response to her mother's breast cancer diagnosis in 2009. By collaborating with figures like jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher, she expanded the organization's reach to support cancer victims. Her public profile was also shaped by her marriage to music manager Scooter Braun, with whom she hosted a fundraiser for Kamala Harris during the 2020 Democratic primaries. Their separation and divorce in 2021–2022 were widely reported. Cohen's legacy is tied to her advocacy for cancer awareness and her ability to leverage her personal story and public platform to promote health education among younger generations.

Did You Know?

• She was born in South Africa and moved to Canada in 1994.
• She married Scooter Braun on July 6, 2014, and they have three children.

Roots and Education

Yael Cohen entered the world on November 4, 1986, in South Africa, raised within a Jewish family whose cultural and religious traditions shaped her earliest years. A pivotal geographic shift followed in 1994, when her family relocated to Canada as she was still a young child. That transatlantic move ultimately established her as a South African–born Canadian, a dual heritage that likely broadened her worldview from an early age. After completing her secondary schooling, Cohen enrolled at the University of British Columbia, where she pursued a degree in political science. Choosing that discipline suggests a formative interest in how institutions, policy frameworks, and public discourse function—curiosities that would later translate into her advocacy work. Her academic grounding in political science gave her a lens for understanding how societal attitudes can be nudged and mobilized, a skill she would eventually bring to bear on the very different but equally consequential terrain of public health awareness and cancer prevention.

Founding Fuck Cancer

The single most consequential event in Cohen's adult life arrived in 2009, when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. That deeply personal crisis became the spark for one of the most unapologetically named nonprofit organizations in the cancer-advocacy landscape. Cohen launched Fuck Cancer with a deliberate intention to shatter the hushed, often passive vocabulary that typically surrounds the disease and to force a more honest, urgent conversation. The organization's central mission is to push millennials—a demographic that frequently avoids medical dialogue—to talk openly about early cancer detection and the importance of screening. By naming the group with such raw directness, Cohen aimed to make the topic impossible to ignore. The charity's profile grew steadily, and in 2016 it forged a collaboration with jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher, a partnership that channeled support toward cancer victims while bridging the worlds of fashion, celebrity culture, and public-health advocacy.

Marriage, Family, and Public Life

In 2013, Cohen began a relationship with music manager Scooter Braun, and the couple married on July 6, 2014. Their union produced three children, and the family became a recognizable presence in both entertainment and political spheres. One particularly visible moment came during the 2020 Democratic primaries, when Cohen and Braun hosted a fundraiser in support of Kamala Harris, underscoring their engagement with American political life well beyond the music industry. Yet the marriage would not hold. By July 2021, reports surfaced that the couple had separated and that Braun had filed for divorce. The legal proceedings ran until September 2022, when the divorce was finalized. Throughout that turbulent period, Cohen's public identity remained anchored to her advocacy work, and the married name Cohen Braun became widely known in media coverage. The dissolution marked a profound personal transition, but her role as a health activist and the founder of Fuck Cancer stayed at the center of who she was publicly.

Identity and Activist Legacy

Yael Cohen occupies a distinctive niche where personal loss, public-health advocacy, and cultural visibility intersect. As a South African–born Canadian of Jewish heritage, her identity carries layers of cultural and geographic complexity that inform the way she approaches public issues. Her activism is rooted not in institutional medicine but in the urgent, intimate need to break the silence around cancer—especially among younger generations who may postpone screening or simply avoid the conversation altogether. The deliberately provocative name of her organization reflects a philosophy that discomfort and bluntness can be more effective than gentle persuasion in prompting people to act. Media features, including a Teen Vogue profile on her mission to promote early detection and a segment in the Makers: Women Who Make America video, have positioned her as a figure who transformed a family's private grief into a structured, ongoing public-health effort, shifting the cultural tone around cancer awareness for a whole generation.

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