Olivia Munn Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Olivia Munn initially chose to keep her breast cancer diagnosis private, but she’s shared plenty of powerful details since coming forward with her journey.
“In February of 2023, in an effort to be proactive about my health, I took a genetic test that checks you for 90 different cancer genes,” Munn wrote via Instagram in March 2024. “I tested negative for all, including BRCA (the most well-known breast cancer gene). My sister Sara [Potts] had just tested negative as well. We called each other and high-fived over the phone. That same winter I also had a normal mammogram.”
Two months after her negative tests, Munn was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent multiple surgeries. “Surprisingly, I’ve only cried twice,” she continued. “I guess I haven’t felt like there was time to cry. My focus narrowed and I tabled any emotions that I felt would interfere with my ability to stay clearheaded.”
Following her diagnosis, Munn’s husband, John Mulaney, stood by her side.
Many celebrities have spoken out about their personal battles with breast cancer over the years. Julia Louis-Dreyfus went public with her breast cancer diagnosis in September 2017 via Instagram. Nearly one year later, she had successfully beaten the illness and returned to work on Veep. “It sounds kind of corny, but there’s something about after […]
“John has been a huge pillar of strength for Olivia throughout her health scare,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2024, noting that the couple’s son, Malcolm, also gave Munn the “courage and strength to keep fighting and overcome this.”
Olivia Munn Jon Kopaloff/WireImage
The battle wasn’t easy, and during her treatment, Munn was advised to eliminate hormones to prevent her cancer from recurring. She faced the decision of either enduring bedrest while continuing medication or addressing the root cause through the surgical removal of certain organs.
“I did have one real moment of panic,” she recalled to Vogue in May 2024, revealing that she had a “full hysterectomy,” removing her uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. “A real breakdown. Because it’s just so strange when you’ve been with this body your entire life, had your period for so long, feel when you’re ovulating, and all of a sudden it’s gone.”
In addition to undergoing a hysterectomy, Munn froze her eggs. She and Mulaney welcomed their second child, daughter Méi, via surrogate in September 2024.
Keep scrolling to see Munn’s candid quotes about her breast cancer journey:
March 2024
When coming forward with her diagnosis, Munn gave a shout-out to Mulaney for his loving support. “I’m so thankful for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect,” she wrote via Instagram. “For being there before I went into each surgery and being there when I woke up, always placing framed photos of our little boy Malcolm so it would be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.”
March 2024
“I’m really grateful for all the love and support I’ve received about my diagnosis that I shared yesterday,” she wrote in an Instagram Story following her initial reveal. “Reading your stories and comments has really meant a lot to me and I just wanted to express my gratitude for all of it.”
John Mulaney and Olivia Munn kicked their romance into high gear after his split from his wife of six years, Anna Marie Tendler, in May 2021. As news broke that Mulaney and Tendler had called it quits, Us Weekly confirmed that the comedian had moved on with Munn. Mulaney and Munn were photographed on a […]
April 2024
Munn told People that her health struggle was “more terrifying” while raising her son.
“Having a little baby at home made everything much more terrifying. It makes you realize, cancer does not care who you are,” she explained, noting that keeping her battle private allowed her to focus more intentionally on her healing. “It comes at you, and you have no choice but to face it head on.”
Olivia Munn Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
The actress “was in shock” when she saw herself after surgery, adding, “It was incredibly hard. … I remember just looking in the mirror with [the doctor] and just having no emotion, just taking in what he was saying.”
April 2024
“I have some divots and dents on one side of my body near where the lymph nodes were, and they had to really dig out,” Munn told People of hiding her scars. “And I’ve been wearing some dresses on the red carpet that made me a little stressed out at times.”
April 2024
Munn revealed that her son helped her navigate through dark days by sharing a video of herself laughing with Malcom via her Instagram Story.
“This moment was last summer when I had already had three surgeries and recovery-mentally and physically- was pretty rough,” she captioned the clip. “The smallest, silliest moments like this lifted me up every single time. My Malcolm.”
May 2024
“I knew there was cancer happening inside of me, which was already giving me a panic,” the Newsroom alum told Vogue, recalling her hysterectomy. “And I knew that they were going to take everything out of my breasts, but that was all on the inside. When I realized things were going to change in ways people could see, too, I really realized things were going to be different.”
She added, “I had friends try to cheer me up by saying, ‘Malcolm’s not going to remember this. Don’t worry.’ But I just kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to remember this, that I missed all these things.’ It’s his childhood, but it’s my motherhood, and I don’t want to miss any of these parts if I don’t have to.”
May 2024
In her first on-camera interview since sharing her diagnosis, Munn told Good Morning America that “you never know what’s going on in someone’s life.”
“There’s a lot of other things that you feel like you can beat,” she explained. “But you know, cancer takes down a lot of people.”
Upon learning she had cancer, Munn said that she “just thought about my baby,” adding, “They said that if I was extremely aggressive, that I could fight this and win. But, at the same time, once they started finding all of these little spots in my breasts like, ‘Oh, there’s another tumor. There’s another tumor,’ there was such an urgency to it because we had to get in and make some really big decisions.”
Later that month, Munn appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show and opened up about the tough love she got from her doctor.
“I wanted you to come in and see me in the office because I wanted to look you in the eye and tell you that you’re too young to have this much cancer in your breast,” Munn recalled her doctor telling her. “And you have a baby at home, and I need you to be aggressive because one is right by your lymph nodes and we need to move fast.”
Munn referred to the medical professional as her “guardian angel.”
June 2024
During an interview on the “SheMD” podcast, Munn recalled feeling “devastated” after her double mastectomy. “I cried a week after, because that was the first time I saw my breasts,” she shared. “I was by myself in my bathroom, and I looked at them, and I cried in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever cried in my life. I cried. I was devastated. I didn’t recognize myself.”
Munn noted that she worried about how she would dress herself after the surgery. “I thought, ‘Oh, there are so many things that I’ll never be able to wear,’” she stated. “It just looked like someone took off my breasts and then took, like, some tape and paper and Tupperware and were like, ‘Here.’”
Noting that she had struggled with wanting to hide her double mastectomy scars, she added: “Maybe one day I’ll get more comfortable with it. I don’t look the same, but that’s OK. I’m here.”
July 2024
Following actress Shannen Doherty’s death at age 53, Munn revealed that they “bonded” over their respective battles with breast cancer and wanting to help other women going through similar struggles.
“True to form, Shannen was offering her support even though she was in the final stage of fighting this horrific disease,” Munn wrote in a lengthy Instagram Story statement. “Cancer is really f—ing scary and Shannen faced it with such dignity, strength and grace.”
October 2024
Munn opened up about experiencing mom guilt while battling breast cancer during a Today show interview. “There is a lot of guilt that I had and still have from being sick for so long and being bedridden with so many surgeries,” she shared. “I mean, I thought that when I got through the big chunk of surgeries, like the four surgeries in the beginning, that I would be able to get back on my feet. But then, there came the first wave of medication, and that just knocked me down and was debilitating.”
Munn said she was often “tired” and “not around that much and I couldn’t hold [Malcolm] as much and I couldn’t go to the playground as much. It was really exhausting and there’s just a lot of guilt.”
Munn also explained to Today’s Savannah Guthrie that she was still working to find what medication worked best for her. “Anybody who’s going through this understands that treatment can be taxing at times. So, I’m trying to find the right medication,” she stated. “But I’ve got my hands full with a newborn and a toddler, so a lot of my energy is going toward them and it’s distracting a lot of the other side effects of my medication. So, I’m doing pretty good.”
February 2025
Munn revealed that she was “really naive” about what a double mastectomy “would be and look like.”
“I really thought that it was like getting an augmentation,” she shared on Monica Lewinsky’s “Reclaiming” podcast in February 2025. “It really wasn’t until so many people would later find out about my breast cancer and friends who were trying to lighten it or probably make me feel good about it. They’re like, ‘Well, you got new boobs.’”
Munn explained that her surgery went on “a lot longer” than it was supposed to because she “started bleeding a lot” and that her best friend, Karine, along with her husband John Mulaney were there to support her at the hospital.
“When I woke up, John had pictures of [my son] Malcolm there and Malcolm had drawn scribble marks everywhere on these papers,” she revealed. “He had all these all over the hospital room and [he was] just saying, like, ‘I’m so proud of you, mommy.’ And just things like that were just so sweet.”
The actress shared that she only cried twice during the 10 months she kept her diagnosis out of the spotlight: before her surgery and the week after. Munn noted that she “didn’t have time to cry” and “think” about everything while going through her surgery.
“Of course I worried that I wouldn’t make it through certain things or that maybe in five years the cancer comes back and mine’s an aggressive cancer,” she explained. “Maybe some of it’s still somewhere, you know. … But I didn’t cry because I couldn’t be afraid.”
Later that month, Munn told People that she’s “doing really good.” She added, “I am working through different medications and I think anyone who’s gone through any kind of cancer, but specifically breast cancer, understands there’s a real science to figuring out the best kind of medication for you.”
Munn said “there are good days and bad days,” noting that she has “hit a good stride” with her health. Munn has become “easier” on herself while finding her “new normal” and gives herself “a lot of grace.”
“I don’t worry about the house being a mess,” she said. “I just wake up and really kind of give myself, I call them attainable goals instead of making really big goals that you end up feeling like I fell short … so I feel successful every day no matter how small it is.”
Munn also praised Mulaney for his support, sharing that the situation has made the couple “even stronger.”
“He’s just the best. We’re so, so close, such great friends, and that bond just got even stronger with not just having children but especially going through this battle with cancer,” she said. “You really don’t know who someone truly is until they’re put to the test — and there was no bigger test for me in my life so far than to find that I have cancer and go down that journey. And he’s handled it all so beautifully.”
