Olivia Munn Told 2nd Pregnancy Could Risk Her Life
Olivia Munn was advised by doctors that carrying a second baby herself would risk her life due to her breast cancer diagnosis and hormone complications
Olivia Munn reflected on her decision to use a surrogate to welcome daughter MĂŠi amid her breast cancer battle.
âI was diagnosed with breast cancer and my type of cancer is a hormone cancer. Hormones in my body feed my cancer,â Munn, 44, told Self in an Instagram video posted on Thursday, April 10. âMy doctors told me that carrying my own baby would put my life at risk. I know that it would put my life at risk, but I loved carrying my son, and I really, really wanted to carry my next child.â
Munn and husband John Mulaney welcomed their son, Malcolm, in November 2021. Two years later, the actress was diagnosed with stage 1 Luminal B breast cancer in both breasts.
âAs I was taking my medication for cancer, those drugs were incredibly debilitating,â Munn explained. âI was just in bed all the time. Iâd be able to get up in the morning, [but] I probably had during the daytime, like, maybe two hours of actual ability to interact with people and play with my son.â
According to Munn, the only way she could get off the hormone-suppressing medicine would be if she underwent an oophorectomy.
âAn oophorectomy is when they remove your ovaries,â she told the outlet. âBecause I was doing the oophorectomy already, I wanted to take out my uterus and my fallopian tubes because once you are diagnosed with cancer, you pretty much spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder and worrying about where else cancer could pop up.â
With the removal of her uterus, Munn was no longer able to carry a pregnancy and âhad to go down the surrogacy route.â
âAbove everything else, I just wanted [our gestational carrier] to be kind,â Munn said in her Self cover story. âSheâs an incredible mother, an incredible human being, an incredible friend, just wonderful. I needed [her] to understand that I needed to go this route.â
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Related: Olivia Munnâs Breast Cancer Journey in Her Own Words
Olivia Munn initially chose to keep her breast cancer diagnosis private, but sheâs shared plenty of powerful details since coming forward with her journey. âIn 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,â Munn wrote via Instagram in [âŚ]
She continued, âIt wasnât for superficial reasons or because I wanted to put my work first. Iâm not saying that any of those reasons arenât valid for those people. Iâm not judging anyone who makes those decisions based on that, but I needed her to understand this would be hard for me.â
Both Munn and Mulaney, 42, were in the delivery room when their surrogate, who is still in their lives, gave birth to MĂŠi.
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âThe first person John hugged was [our surrogateâs] husband, he gave him a big kiss on the cheek,â she recalled. âIt was just wonderful.â
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