John Mulaney Reveals ‘Only Reason’ Olivia Munn’s Cancer Was Discovered

John Mulaney and his wife, Olivia Munn, both faced a startling new normal when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“There’s this lifetime risk assessment test that is really the only reason her cancer was discovered,” Mulaney, 42, said on the Sunday, March 9, broadcast of CBS Sunday Morning. “Seeing so many women publicly and privately come to her that [say] they discovered how high their risk was from that, it’s astonishing.”

Munn, 44, revealed in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer one year earlier.

“In an effort to be proactive about my health, I took a genetic test that checks you for 90 different cancer genes. “I tested negative for all, including BRCA (the most well-known breast cancer gene). My sister Sara [Potts] had just tested negative as well,” Munn recalled via Instagram at the time. “We called each other and high-fived over the phone. That same winter I also had a normal mammogram.”

Two months later, despite the negative results, Munn was diagnosed with breast cancer and subsequently underwent four procedures, including a mastectomy and hysterectomy.

“I took out my uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries,” she told Vogue in May 2024. “Doing a full hysterectomy was a big decision to make, but it was the best decision for me because I needed to be present for my family.”

Munn and Mulaney, who tied the knot in 2024, are parents to son Malcolm, 3, and daughter Méi, 9 months. (They welcomed Méi via surrogate amid Munn’s breast cancer battle.)

“I had friends try to cheer me up by saying, ‘Malcolm’s not going to remember this. Don’t worry,’” Munn recalled to the outlet last year. “But I just kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to remember this, that I missed all these things.’ It’s his childhood, but it’s my motherhood, and I don’t want to miss any of these parts if I don’t have to.”

In addition to navigating his wife’s cancer diagnosis, Mulaney noted on Sunday that welcoming Malcolm and Méi also transformed his life.

“I’m in the world now that I’m a father. My head was my only home before that,” the comedian said. “When my son was born, the first thought I had was, ‘Oh, there you are.’ And when my daughter was born, I had this — not to sound ‘woo-woo’ or anything — but when she was born, I went, ‘Oh!’ My thought was like, ‘Oh, we’ve met before. I’ve collided with you some other time.’ So, it’s like these people came in that just, I don’t know, make me like the world a lot more.”