Actress Olivia Munn shocked many in April 2024 when she revealed that she had been diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer a year before. People couldnât believe that she had chosen to keep the whole process off social media to allow herself to focus on her health. Others praised her for sharing her story when she felt she was ready.
Breast cancer is scary, not just for the person undergoing the treatment, but their families, too. Olivia is in a relationship with comedian John Mulaney, and they share a son, Malcolm. She is now opening up about documenting her cancer journey, and how her young son was the reason behind her decision.
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Her reason is absolutely heartbreaking.
In an interview with Michael Strahan for Good Morning America this week, Olivia was brutally honest when he asked why she documented her cancer journey.
âWell because if I didnât make it, I wanted my son when he got older to know that I fought to be here. That I tried my best. You want the people in your life, you want the people that maybe don't understand what's going on right to know that you did everything you could to be here,â she explained.
Malcolm was always on her mind.
Olivia was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in April 2023, revealing this year on social media that she underwent a double mastectomy after an MRI found luminal B â a fast-moving, aggressive cancer, in both of her breasts.
âCancer is the â thatâs the word you don't want to hear,â she told Strahan. Thereâs a lot of other things that you feel like you can beat, but you know cancer takes down a lot of people. And I just thought about my baby,â she said of 2-year-old Malcolm.
Olivia called going through treatment 'tiring.'
Undergoing the treatment she needed gave her ânext level debilitating exhaustion,â she explained, adding that it didnât allow her to be the kind of mother she wanted to be.
âWhenever Malcolm would come into the home heâd run straight to my bed because that's where he knows I am, like thatâs what he associated with me,â she said. âAnd that was just too difficult for me to take. I had to find out if there was another option.â
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Her cancer diagnosis led her to make decisions about her future.
Olivia also shared that she chose to undergo both a hysterectomy and oophorectomy due to the type of cancer she had, but because she and John Mulaney âwerenât done growing our family,â she decided to freeze her eggs.
âI knew there was a risk and our doctor said, 'Look weâre gonna get one for you and then weâre gonna call it,'â she said. âAnd then our doctor called and he said, 'Hey we got the results back. Itâs two healthy embryos,' and I mean we just started bawling, crying, both of us.â
She credited John for being the one to keep it all together.
âIt wouldâve felt like climbing an iceberg without him,â she told People last month.
âI donât think he had a moment to himself, between being an incredibly hands-on father and going to and from the hospital â taking Malcolm to the park, putting him to nap, driving to Cedars-Sinai, hanging out with me, going home, putting Malcolm to bed, coming back to me. And he did it all happily.â
