In the Prelude to Dune series, it is revealed that Jessica's mother is in fact Mohiam; according to the authors, this fact was pulled directly from Frank Herbert's working notes for the original Dune series. In the storyline, Mohiam blackmails the homosexual Baron Harkonnen into a sexual encounter; when the first daughter she conceives proves genetically undesirable, she is forced to return. At this point the Baron drugs and viciously rapes Mohiam, and in retribution she secretly infects him with the disease that will later leave him horribly obese. The daughter born of this second union is Jessica.
The Prelude series also follows Jessica and Leto's relationship from their first meeting through the birth (and subsequent kidnapping and return) of their son Paul. It is indicated that Jessica's choice to bear a son is partially due to her desire to help Leto overcome the devastating loss of his first son, Victor, by his concubine Kailea Vernius.
Journal entries are attributed to Jessica via epigraph in the Prelude to Dune series:
- The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can only be outgrown. — Dune: House Harkonnen
- It is not easy for some men to know they have done evil, for reasoning and honor are often clouded by pride. — Dune: House Corrino
- There is no mystery about the source from which love draws its savage power: It comes from the flow of Life itself — a wild, torrential, outpouring that has its source in the most ancient of times... — Dune: House Corrino
Read more about this topic: Lady Jessica