Olivia Munn reveals she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent double mastectomy
Olivia Munn has revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The actress took to Instagram on 13 March to explain the entire process up until this point, including some photos of her in the hospital.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she captioned her post. “I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey.”
Munn wrote that she and her sister were undergoing genetic testing for 90 different cancer genes including BRCA, the most well-known breast cancer gene. Although both Munn and her sister tested negative for the gene and had a clear mammogram, her doctor decided to calculate her Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score just in case.
“The fact that she did saved my life,” Munn wrote in her Instagram post, noting that her risk was 37 per cent.
Because of that per centage, she was then sent for an MRI, ultrasound, and biopsy, which revealed she had Luminal B cancer in both breasts. Her post explained that this is an “aggressive, fast moving cancer”.
In the post, she revealed that, over the next month, she had a double mastectomy, and a total of four surgeries in the last 10 months.
“I went from feeling completely fine one day, to waking up in a hospital bed after a 10-hour surgery the next,” she wrote. “I’m lucky. We caught it with enough time that I had options.”
The actress went on to thank her loved ones for helping her throughout all of her surgeries, specifically mentioning her boyfriend and father to her two-year-old son, Malcolm, John Mulaney.
Despite dating for three years, the couple did not make their first red carpet debut until January 2024.
Although the outing marked the couple’s first red carpet together, they frequently share insights into their life as a family of three on social media.
“I’m so thankful to John for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect,” she wrote in her Instagram post.
“For being there before I went into each surgery and being there when I woke up, always placing framed photos of our little boy Malcolm so it would be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.”
Munn’s post ended with her thanking all of the health professionals involved in her surgeries including her physicians, the staff at Cedars-Sinai and Saint John’s in Santa Monica, California. She also called her OBGYN, Dr Thaïs Aliabadi, her “guardian angel”.
She noted in her post that according to Aliabadi, any woman with a Breast Cancer Risk Assessment score above 20 per cent needs annual mammograms and breast MRIs starting at 30 years old.
Mulaney went on to comment on the post, writing: “Thank you for fighting so hard to be here for us. Malc and I adore you.”