Olivia Munn shares how John Mulaney supported her after breast cancer diagnosis
Olivia Munn is opening up about the way her husband, comedian John Mulaney, supported her after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The 45-year-old actor learned that she had Stage 1 breast cancer in April 2023, which prompted her to get a double mastectomy, an ovariectomy and a partial hysterectomy.
Munn said that Mulaney, the father of her two children, was by her side throughout all her appointments and surgeries.
“There’s no better person in the world to me than my husband,” Munn said on CBS Sunday Morning. The Newsroom actor and the SNL alum started dating in 2021 and got married in 2024.
Munn went on to say that Mulaney’s sense of humor helped her stay positive about her diagnosis.
“He wanted to come to every single doctor’s appointment,” Munn recalled. “He had his little notebook. You know? And he’s got his notebook that he writes all of his ideas for jokes and anything that comes to him through the day.”
She added, “You know, having the humor to go through it and having someone who’s so funny, it really– it just lightens everything.”
Munn was diagnosed with breast cancer after she had no symptoms, no family history and no warning signs. She credits a free online Q&A, the Lifetime Risk Assessment test, with helping her to get checked out for cancer.
The X-Men: Apocalypse actor announced her diagnosis in an Instagram post shared in March 2024, which detailed the process of discovering her cancer.
After Munn was sent for an MRI, ultrasound, and biopsy, doctors discovered Luminal B cancer in both of her breasts. Her post explained that this was an “aggressive, fast-moving cancer,” leading to her four surgeries.
“I went from feeling completely fine one day, to waking up in a hospital bed after a 10-hour surgery the next,” she wrote. “I’m lucky. We caught it with enough time that I had options.”
In the post, she thanked Mulaney for his support, writing: “I’m so thankful to John for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect.”
She continued, “For being there before when 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.”
Mulaney and Munn share Malcolm, 4, and their daughter Mei Mei, who will be two in the fall.
