LOS ANGELES – American actress Olivia Munn said on March 13 that she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2023 and soon after had a double mastectomy as part of her treatment.
Munn, 43, who has starred in dozens of movies and television shows, including HBO series The Newsroom (2012 to 2014), wrote in a lengthy social media post that she had tried to be proactive about her health.
In February 2023, not long after having a normal mammogram, she took a robust genetic test that checked for 90 cancer genes. She said she tested negative for all of them, including BRCA, the most well-known breast cancer gene. Her sister also tested negative around the same time.
“We called each other and high-fived over the phone,” Munn wrote.
Two months later, she learnt she had luminal B, a type of breast cancer. A month after that, she had the double mastectomy.
“In the past 10 months, I have had four surgical operations, so many days spent in bed I can’t even count, and have learnt more about cancer, cancer treatment and hormones than I ever could have imagined,” she wrote. “Surprisingly, I’ve cried only twice. I guess I haven’t felt like there was time to cry.”
Munn’s post was in large part a plea to women to ask their doctors to calculate their breast cancer risk assessment score. That her obstetrician-gynaecologist had done so helped identify her cancer early.
“The fact that she did saved my life,” Munn wrote.
The risk assessment includes factors like familial breast cancer history and age; Munn mentioned in her post that having her first child over age 30 was a factor.
Munn has been in a relationship with comic John Mulaney, 41, since 2021, and they have a two-year-old son, Malcolm.
The results of her risk assessment prompted her doctor to send her for magnetic resonance imaging, which led to an ultrasound. That led to a biopsy revealing the cancer.
In her post, Munn thanked her doctors as well as friends and family. She thanked Mulaney for researching all of her operations and medications for information about side effects and recovery.
For the past year, her social media has shown many happy moments, as well as many glamorous ones, including family photos at the beach and others of her in designer looks.
Last weekend, she shared images of herself wearing a metallic Fendi gown for the Oscars ceremony, where Mulaney presented an award.
“I’ve tended to let people see me when I have energy, when I can get dressed and get out of the house, when I can take my baby boy to the park,” she wrote.
“I’ve kept the diagnosis, the worry, the recovery, the pain medicine and the paper gowns private. I needed to catch my breath and get through some of the hardest parts before sharing.” NYTIMES
