NEED TO KNOW
- Last year, Olivia Munn revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer
- The actress has since had five surgeries, including a lymph node dissection, a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy
- She tells PEOPLE that today, she has more appreciation for the little things in life and being with friends and family
Olivia Munn has a greater appreciation for life since going through her breast cancer journey.
On May 15, while promoting her new Apple TV+ show Your Friends & Neighbors at an FYC event in Los Angeles, the actress opened up to PEOPLE about the new perspective she has gained.
“I don’t think I realized 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 explained. “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 realizing like, ‘Oh, wait, these things don’t matter.’ But, at the same time, that’s, I guess, the blessing in those moments.”
Munn, 44, was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in April 2023. She has since had five surgeries, including a lymph node dissection, a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy.
Since overcoming that difficult journey, the X-Men Apocalypse star admitted that she’s so much more appreciative of her friends and family, especially her husband John Mulaney and their two children, son Malcolm, 3, and 7-month-old daughter Méi.
“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,” she said. “Everything else is just extra.”
Eric Charbonneau/Apple TV+ via Getty
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Earlier this year, Munn told PEOPLE that she’s been feeling positive about her breast cancer journey. During the 2025 TIME Women of the Year Gala in February, she said she’s “doing really good” as she discussed her treatment and health.
“I’m doing really good today,” Munn, who was an honoree at the event, shared. “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.”
While Munn admitted “there are good days and bad days,” she said that she has “hit a good stride” when it comes to her health.
“I think before all of this, I wanted to seize the day and get stuff done and have my list of to-do things,” she said at the time. “And now my to-do lists are a lot shorter. I love organizing and my house is a mess — I don’t know if it’s because of cancer treatment or because I have two children.”
“I give myself a lot of grace now with things like that,” she told PEOPLE. “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.”
