Olivia Munn says cancer journey led her to be ‘kinder to myself’
By Carla Feric, Press Association Entertainment Reporter
US actress Olivia Munn said being diagnosed with breast cancer led her to be “a lot more forgiving and kinder to myself”.
The X-Men star, 45, has been candid about her battle with the disease since receiving her diagnosis in 2023, and has undergone four operations including a double mastectomy.
Munn has since become a prominent advocate for the disease, working with charities such as the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and helped her mother Kim realise her own breast cancer diagnosis.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, the actress discussed how her diagnosis led her to change her outlook on life.
Munn said: “I used to be really hard on myself, you know, being in the public eye we all know people say a lot of things, and sometimes it’s not kind.
“People would ask me, ‘how do you handle that?’ and I’m like, ‘well, what I would say to myself was harder’. The internal thoughts were much more difficult to deal with.
“As soon as I was diagnosed – and I didn’t know I did this until months later, when I look back – but I just dropped all that baggage.
“I was looking at this mountain, this Everest that I had to climb, and I just intuitively knew I couldn’t do that without extra baggage. When I got to a place where I could assess everything, I looked down and I could see that baggage and I thought, ‘I don’t want to pick that back up’.
“I’ve lived my life a lot more forgiving of myself and and kinder to myself.”
Munn, who has two children with her partner, comedian John Mulaney, continued: “I’m always looking into the future. And I realised that I was just missing so much of my present life by doing that.
“Having small children, I started thinking about if I’m lucky enough to live to 80 or 90, I would do anything to get back to this age.
“I said to my husband just a few days ago, when we’re 80 or 90 and we’re looking back on our life, these are the moments we’ll come back to. These are the memories that we will hold on to and will reminisce about.
“I want to be here, and I don’t want them to just be memories in the future. I want to feel them now. That really grounds me and brings me back.”
Recalling when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Munn said: “I had my first child, and then had horrible postpartum anxiety, which really surprised me because, as a woman, I’d been prepared for postpartum depression. Everybody talked about that.
“But I was not even prepared for postpartum anxiety. I didn’t even know what it was for the first couple months it was happening. So that lasted like a year, and as soon as I came out of that fog, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.”
The star explained that she found out about her cancer after her mammogram came up clear, but after taking a genetic risk assessment test she asked for an MRI which led to doctors discovering a tumour in her right breast.
That test, the lifetime risk assessment test, saved my life without a doubt.
“That test, the lifetime risk assessment test, saved my life without a doubt.
“About a year after that, my mother had a clear mammogram and a clear ultrasound, but because I knew about this test I had my mother get her score.
“She went to get an MRI, and then she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself – but hers is even more aggressive.”
Munn added that her mother also underwent treatment including a double mastectomy following her diagnosis.
On her advocacy encouraging women to take lifetime risk assessment tests, she said: “The main goal is to… you know, we as women, or as everybody, we go into the doctor’s office. They get our our blood pressure, they get our cholesterol.
“I think that every doctor should be asking every woman, what is your lifetime risk assessment?”
