Olivia Munn and John Mulaney welcomed their first child together before John met Olivia’s mom. Their son Malcolm arrived in November 2021, just before Thanksgiving. During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Olivia explained exactly what happened on the day her mom met her now-husband.
It’s perhaps not all that surprising that her mom hadn’t met John yet given that she previously revealed that she and John were not dating when they found out they were expecting their first child together. At first, they didn’t necessarily think they would get married, but they knew they would co-parent. “I barely knew him,” Olivia previously revealed.
After Malcolm was born, Olivia’s mom came to visit. Olivia told Seth that her mom had “never met John by this point,” but that didn’t seem to be her priority — in fact, she didn’t even acknowledge him when she walked in. Instead, she started unzipping her suitcase and taking frozen turkeys out of it, Olivia explained. Her mom then went on to tell John about an important family “tradition” — that she actually made up.
“She says to John, ‘You know, it’s so exciting, in my family with all of our kids, the tradition [is] we put a drumstick in their hand for their first Thanksgiving when they’re a baby,’” Olivia continued. “And John was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.'”
John then told Olivia that her mom was going to carry on the family tradition with Malcom. But Olivia was surprised because she had never heard of this “tradition” in her life. “I was like, ‘That is not a tradition. What is she talking about?'”
However, her mom insisted that it really was a family tradition. Olivia proceeded to call her siblings to see if they had any memories or evidence of this supposed family tradition. But the family ended up taking a photo of Malcolm with a turkey leg anyway. After they took the photo, Olivia’s mom said, “OK, a new tradition.”
This kind of behavior is not unusual for Olivia’s mother. During the same episode, Olivia explained that when she chose a name for her second child, daughter Méi June, she thought she was honoring her mom, who told her people used to call her “June” as a nickname.
Once Olivia and John named their daughter Méi June, though, Olivia’s mom admitted that someone had only called her “June” once in 1987. At least it’s a funny story to tell!
