John Mulaney Gave a Touching Speech About Olivia Munn’s Breast Cancer Battle: 'Saving Lives by Speaking Her Truth'
John Mulaney gave Olivia Munn a beautiful surprise — and a touching tribute — after her difficult breast cancer battle at the InStyle Imagemaker Awards on Thursday.
The comedian, who shares two children with Munn, made a surprise appearance at the ceremony to present the actress with her Woman of Impact Award, “in recognition of her advocacy and change-making in women’s health” following her breast cancer diagnosis last year, the outlet said. It’s the first extended remarks Mulaney has made about Munn’s diagnosis, and he took the opportunity to share more about her experience with treatment, which included five surgeries, one of them a double mastectomy.
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Mulaney shared that both he and Munn were “a little nervous” ahead of her third surgery, in September 2023, because Munn had “lost a lot of blood” during the previous surgery. He recalled how Munn reached for and found a deeper strength in that moment.
Reflecting on a book she’d recently read about Jackie Kennedy and how she “never got over” her husband’s assassination, Munn said, “She always regretted that she didn’t move past it… I’m scared, but I’m taking all of this and I’m not going to let it hang over our lives. I’m moving past it.”
Those words hit home for Mulaney. “I thought, how lucky our kids are to have you as their mother, how lucky I am to have you as my partner in life.”
Earlier this year, Munn decided to share her story publicly to raise awareness not just for breast cancer but for alternate forms of screening for the disease. In her first Instagram post detailing her diagnosis, Munn explained that her mammogram had come back normal and she’d tested negative for the BRCA gene, a gene that increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Seemingly in the clear, Munn nonetheless decided to take an additional questionnaire, the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment test, at the encouragement of her doctor. Her score ultimately identified her as having a high risk of the disease. That led Munn to go in for MRI, then a biopsy, before being diagnosed with an aggressive, fast-moving type of breast cancer, Luminal B, in both breasts.
It’s not your “normal” breast cancer diagnosis story (if there is such a thing), which is why Munn’s decision to speak out was so powerful, as Mulaney went on to highlight. “[Her breast cancer] was detected because she took a heretofore not-that-known test called the lifetime breast cancer risk assessment test and they found that she had a 37 percent chance of breast cancer,” he said. “And about a month later, she was having a double mastectomy.”
Munn’s motivation to share her story was “to help anyone she could,” Mulaney went on, and the impact was real. “According to the National Cancer Institute, in the week after Olivia shared the story of her breast cancer journey, there was a 4,000 percent increase in women visiting the breast cancer risk assessment,” Mulaney said. “That was the first week. Olivia saving lives by speaking her truth is not surprising to me.”
Munn has been working to shatter other stigmas around women’s healthcare too. She’s spoken openly about her experience with postpartum anxiety, facing menopause as a result of cancer treatments, and even struggling with mom guilt when the cancer affected her parenting. Her transparency has made millions of women feel seen, and we’re glad Mulaney appreciates his wife’s bravery, too.
Before you go, shop these gifts for breast cancer survivors and patients:
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