Olivia Munn has opened up about her unconventional journey to becoming a mother.
The actor, 43, appeared on the June 4 episode of the She MD podcast with her OB-GYN, Dr Thaïs Aliabadi, who delivered Munn’s son Malcolm in November 2021. The New Girl star shares her now-two-year-old son with comedian John Mulaney.
“It was a surprise pregnancy,” she told podcast co-hosts Dr Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney. Munn explained that she had frozen her eggs twice, once at 33 and at 39, when people weren’t as open about the process of freezing eggs.
She decided to freeze her eggs after hearing about a mutual friend who wanted to have a baby, but had to undergo chemotherapy for her cancer treatment. According to the National Cancer Institute, chemotherapy and radiation can negatively affect the ovaries, causing them to stop releasing eggs and producing estrogen.
Munn described how she spoke publicly about her fertility journey on fellow actor Anna Faris’ podcast, and she instantly received praise as “one of the first people” to talk openly about freezing eggs.
“As a woman, things are just unpredictable and even if things go perfectly with your health, there is a biological clock on us that does not exist for men,” Munn said. “If I froze my eggs, that means that I don’t have to race the clock. It means that I don’t have to try to find a partner to make this happen. It means that I don’t have to make a decision on what I want to do. It just gives me the gift of time, allows me to just breathe.”
As for Malcolm, Munn described becoming naturally pregnant with Malcolm – sans artificial reproductive technology – as “a blessing.”
Elsewhere during the podcast, the Newsroom star admitted that her pregnancy was “surprisingly” easy at some points but “difficult” at the same time. Munn explained that she had certain expectations about how she’d look when she was pregnant, though her expectations were completely thrown out the window.
“I looked nothing like what I see people look like when they’re pregnant. I had a six-day window where it looked cute,” she jokingly said. “I was wearing the same sweatpants and the same flannel shirt everywhere because I just couldn’t get it together.”
The Hollywood star went on to acknowledge how “being in the public eye” and the advantages of social media has given people “greater understanding” and “a lot more compassion and grace” about what women are going through in their day to day lives. However, that didn’t stop her from feeling insecure about her appearance during her pregnancy.
“I had friends who were pregnant at the same time or had their babies after me, and yet they snap back like that,” Munn said. “Their pregnancy outfits were so cute, everything was so cute, or they already had the nurseries done. The nursery wasn’t done until days before, I mean days before.”
Although Munn noted that what people post on social media isn’t always reality, she joked that she didn’t “even have the energy” to pretend her life was in order.
“I put on 60 pounds, that’s when I stopped counting,” she continued. “I stayed inside a lot during my pregnancy, and I was really craving pizza and Lucky Charms… My body did not snap back afterwards, I did not lose the weight. Right now I’m doing a lot of laser treatments on my stomach,” Munn said, referring to her post-baby body as having a “deflated balloon” effect.
Despite her pregnancy having its ups and downs, Munn assured fans that she would “give [her] whole body up” for her son Malcolm.
Munn and Mulaney announced the arrival of their first child together on December 24, 2021. Sharing the same snap of Malcolm sleeping to Instagram, the couple showed their newborn baby wrapped in a white fuzzy blanket and wearing a baby blue beanie. “My Golden Ox baby. Malcolm Hiệp Mulaney. Happy Holidays,” she captioned the Christmas Eve post.
Meanwhile, the Big Mouth actor shared an amusing message to Instagram after welcoming his son. “Meet Malcolm Hiệp Mulaney. He has his whole life ahead of him. He hasn’t even tried seltzer yet,” Mulaney wrote in the Instagram caption. “I’m very in love with him and his whole deal. Happy Holidays.”
The couple began dating in 2021. In September that year, Mulaney confirmed on Late Night with Seth Meyers that they were expecting a baby together. The announcement came just two months after he filed for divorce from his wife of six years, Anna Marie Tendler, in July 2021. The couple had originally separated in May, following Mulaney’s reported drug addiction relapse and 60-day rehab treatment.
Most recently, Munn revealed in March that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy surgery.
