In April 2023, Olivia Munn was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been open about her cancer experience in the hopes of helping others. She and partner John Mulaney decided to undergo another round of egg freezing before she began treatment in case they want more children in the future.
Oliva opened up about this in an interview with Vogue that was published on May 12, 2024. This isn’t the first time Olivia has undergone the egg freezing process. She has done it at ages 33, 39, and now 42.
There was a difference in egg quality each time she froze her eggs. It has to do with age. “It's interesting because my 33-year-old eggs were great. My 39-year-old eggs? None of them worked," she explained. "As you get older, one month can have great eggs, the other not so much."
"Clearly, the month we did at 39 was not a good month. After my diagnosis, we decided to try one more round of egg retrievals and hoped it was a good month. John and I talked about it a lot and we don't feel like we're done growing our family, but didn't know if I would have to do chemotherapy or radiation," she explained. Olivia and John share a 2-year-old son, Malcolm.
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John and Olivia did not make this decision lightly. They understood that her aggressive treatment for her luminal B-type breast cancer would impact her fertility. They also understood that the hormones needed for egg retrieval could possibly cause cancer cells to grow. They decided to risk it anyway.
“We just wanted a few more eggs,” Olivia explained. “At my age, one in every 10 eggs are healthy, and we were hoping to make one embryo from this retrieval.” The retrieval yielded seven eggs.
Olivia and John had to wait and see. "A few hours later, we got the call from my doctor. He shared that we had two healthy embryos," Olivia explained. "John and I just started crying. It was just so exciting because not only did we get it in one retrieval, but it also meant that I didn't have to keep putting myself at risk. It was just amazing."
Outside of Olivia’s cancer diagnosis, John and she prefer to remain private. John fully supports her desire to be public about her cancer journey. "We are very protective of our little life, but I knew from the day she was diagnosed that the risk assessment test her doctor had done open-and-shut saved her life,” John explained. "So, while we like to lead our life privately, I was completely supportive of Olivia sharing her story."
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