Opening up about how her health battle gave her a wake-up call, actress Olivia Munn has told how she didn’t realise she was focusing on “things that didn’t matter” until she was diagnosed with cancer.
Olivia Munn didn’t realise she was focusing on “things that didn’t matter” until she was diagnosed with cancer.
The actress, 44, was told she had bilateral breast cancer in April 2023 and since then has undergone five surgeries including a double mastectomy, a hysterectomy and lymph node dissection.
Opening up about the new outlook on life the gruelling health fight has given her, she told a FYC event in Los Angeles while proming her new Apple TV+ series ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’: “I don’t think I realised how much I was focusing on things that didn’t matter until I had a crashing moment in my life, which was being diagnosed with breast cancer.”
She continued: “It’s unfortunate, I think, when something that big has to kind of turn your head around to look back at how you’ve been living and realising like, ‘Oh, wait, these things don’t matter.’
“But, at the same time, that’s, I guess, the blessing in those moments.”
Olivia revealed the details of her diagnosis and treatment earlier this year and has since spoken openly about how the ordeal has shifted her priorities.
The ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ star said she now appreciates her time with loved ones more than ever, especially with her partner, 41-year-old comedian John Mulaney, and their two children – three-year-old son Malcolm and seven-month-old daughter Méi.
She said: “So when I have energy to get up in the morning and I have energy to be with my family and my friends, and I get to work with amazing people, it’s truly, as saccharine as it might sound, when I get up and I’m here and I get to see the sky and I see my children playing and I get to talk to my friends – I just need that.
“Everything else is just extra.”
Speaking to People magazine at the TIME Women of the Year Gala in February 2025, where she was an honouree, Olivia said about her health journey: “I’m doing really good today. I am working through different medications and I think anyone who’s gone through any kind of cancer, but specifically breast cancer, understands there’s a real science to figuring out the best kind of medication for you.”
She admitted not every day is easy but said she has “hit a good stride” when it comes to managing her health.
Olivia added: “I think before all of this, I wanted to seize the day and get stuff done and have my list of to-do things.
“And now my to-do lists are a lot shorter. I love organising and my house is a mess – I don’t know if it’s because of cancer treatment or because I have two children.”
Olivia added: “I give myself a lot of grace now with things like that. I don’t worry about the house being a mess… I just wake up and really kind of give myself, I call them attainable goals instead of making really big goals that you end up feeling like I fell short… so I feel successful every day no matter how small it is.”
Olivia Munn didn’t realise she was focusing on ‘things that didn’t matter’ until cancer fight
